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TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 



To Infidelity and Back 

A Truth-seeker's Religious 
Autobiography 

How I Found Christ and His Church 



By 

Evangelist Henry F. Lutz 

Author of " Economic Redemption ; or, Hard 
Times : the Cause and Cure,'''' etc. 



"I will bring the blind by a way that 
they knew not; I will lead them in paths 
that they have not known : I will make 
darkness light before them, and crooked 
things straight. These things will I do unto 
them and not for'sake them" — Isa. 42:16. 

"Slight tastes of philosophy may per- 
chance move one to atheism, but fuller 
draughts lead back to religion." — Lord 
Bacon. 



Cincinnati, Ohio: 
THE STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY, 






Copyright, 1911, 
The Standard Publishing Co. 



©GU297G57 



DEDICATION 

To the sacred memory of the pioneers of 
the great Restoration Movement of the nine- 
teenth century, who forsook the religious asso- 
ciations of a lifetime and cheerfully endured 
poverty, persecution and every hardship in their 
■ endeavor to restore Christian union on the prim- 
mitive gospel, and who held forth a beacon-light 
that helped me to find the truth in its simplicity 
as it is in Christ Jesus. 



My Soul Struggle in Symbolism 

Upon the fly-leaf of my Bible I find the 
following, which was written shortly after I 
emerged from the stormy sea of heartrending 
agony through which I passed in my conflict 
with sectarianism, rationalism, infidelity and 
doubt. It was not written for the public, but 
was simply an effort of my soul to express in a 
measure, through human symbols, the painful 
experiences through which it passed. It will 
seem extravagant language to those who have 
never had their souls lacerated by doubt and 
despair. But the sensitive souls who have en- 
dured similar experiences will understand, and 
it is with the hope of reaching and helping them 
that it is given to the public. 

"A Ten Years' Journey 
From the childhood land of ignorant innocence 
to the kingdom of Christ : by way of deserts of 
negation; mountains of assumption; rivers of 
irony, sarcasm and conceit ; bays of contention ; 
gulfs of liberalism; and oceans of infidelity, 
doubt and confusion — swept by undercurrents of 
stlfish passion, tempests of blind sentiment, mael- 
stroms of fear and despair; covered with black 



viii SOUL STRUGGLE 

clouds of prejudice and preconceived ideas, dense 
fogs of theological speculation, gigantic icebergs 
of indifference, monstrous sharks of procrastina- 
tion, and ruinous rocks of materialism ; through 
the strait of darkness and absurdity, over the sea 
of twilight and joy, into the haven of rest. 

"In the ship, religion; pole-star, faith in God; 
rudder, free will ; compass, conscience ; sextant, 
rationalism and experience ; anchor, hope ; guid- 
ing chart, creeds and opinions of men vs. the 
Word of God ; pilot, Jesus Christ. 

"Motto: Work out your own salvation with 
fear and trembling. 

''Prayer: O God! thou knowest the secret de- 
sire of my heart. Thou knowest how earnestly 
I have sought the truth. God forbid that my life 
should be a barren waste ; that I should so use 
the powers that thou hast given me that the 
world shall not be better for my having lived in 
it. Lord, grant I may ever find the work that 
thou wouldst have me do. 'Search me, O God, 
and know my heart : try me, and know my 
thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in 
me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Amen." 

This, in substance, was my daily prayer for 
ten long, dreary years ; for, w T hile my intellect 
was in doubt and confusion, my heart continued 
to cling to God. 



INTRODUCTION 



One of the clearest expounders of the Scrip- 
tures in my acquaintance is the author of this 
book, who honors me in asking that I write 
these few lines of introduction. His experience 
is full of interest. I have listened night after 
night with profit to his sermons, and he has dug 
his way in the most painstaking fashion out of 
the darkness of un faith into the beauty and 
strength of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

There is no institution like the church of 
God, for it is founded upon the divine Sonship 
of Jesus, and his Holy Spirit has given to it 
divine life, so that Isaiah's prophecy lights up 
the pathway of victory, when it is said: "He 
will not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set 
justice in the earth, and the isles shall wait for 
his law." Its right to advance has been dis- 
puted, and, at times in its long history, it appears 
to have stood timidly doubting its power and 
right to soul conquest, but this has only been 
apparent, for every century has brought with it 
a greater courage, so that in this day believers 



x INTRODUCTION 

in Jesus are speaking in the language of every 
nation on the earth, and hosts of these are as 
ready to lay down their lives for their faith in 
Jesus as did Stephen and James and Paul and 
that host of martyrs whose willing sacrifices 
gave strength and solidarity to the early church. 

The ordinances have naturally suffered at 
the hands of every invasion, and, in consequence, 
some of the most devout have not been able to 
find the path to the ordinances as practiced in 
the apostolic days, but the skies are brightening, 
and, without questioning for a moment the sin- 
cerity and devotion of those who think other- 
wise, the Scriptures are being read to-day with 
more freedom than at any other period in the 
history of the church, and its ordinances are 
gradually coming to light in the public mind. 
God has been patient with us and we must be 
patient with those who do not think as we do. 
One of the most important problems now facing 
us, however, is that all believers shall find a com- 
mon way for entrance into the church. When 
that has been done, a long step will have been 
taken towards world-wide evangelization. 

The fields are already white unto harvest. 
This is the day of opportunity. Christ is wait- 
ing on us. If the time was short, like a furled 
sail, in Paul's day, how much shorter is it in 



INTRODUCTION xi 

our day ! The gospel has been sent to all na- 
tions, and God is sending men from all nations 
to America to hear the gospel, so that the lines 
are crossing and recrossing each other and are 
so many prophecies of the fulfillment of the 
commission of Jesus, when he said : "All author- 
ity hath been given unto me in heaven and on 
earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of 
all nations, baptizing them into the name of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
I commanded you ; and lo, I am with you always, 
even unto the end of the world." 

Deciding for Christ and being baptized into 
him is only a small part of the work that is to 
be done. Then begins their training into real 
discipleship, when they are to produce the fruit 
of the Spirit, which is "love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meek- 
ness, self-control." 

This book is a contribution to that end, and 
may those who read its pages be brought to yield 
their best to the glory of Him who is our all. 

Baltimore, Md. Peter Ainslie. 



PREFACE 



This book contains my religious experience 
in a forty years' sojourn on earth. If any doubt 
the propriety and value of relating one's re- 
ligious experience, I would refer them to the 
case of Paul, who used this method on a number 
of occasions. However, we should be careful 
not to make an improper use of this method and 
preach our experiences in place of the gospel. 
Paul says : "We preach not ourselves, but Christ 
Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for 
Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:5). We should refer 
to our experiences simply to help deliver people 
from human error and center their attention on 
the gospel of Christ, which alone is the power 
of God unto salvation. 

I do not take any great credit to myself for 
my experiences recorded in this book, realizing 
that they were largely the result of my inherited 
proclivities and religious environment. It must 
be admitted that the great mass of mankind are 
what they are in religion, politics, etc., by 
heredity and environment. This is powerfully 



xiv PREFACE 

impressed upon us by the ministers who give 
their experience in "Why I Am What I Am." 
Even the fact that it is natural for me to seek 
to. know what is right for myself, I attribute 
more largely to my natural hereditary mental 
bent, than to any particular merit of my own. 
I trust this book will help us all to realize the 
danger of drifting with traditionary religion, 
and thus defeating the revealed truth of Jesus 
Christ, and the need of searching the truth for 
ourselves that thus we may be used of God to 
advance his kingdom of unity and truth. Chris- 
tian civilization would make much more rapid 
strides if we all would struggle to find the truth 
instead of acquiring our ideas through the col- 
ored glasses of prejudice and ignorance. 

My ancestry on mother's side were German 
Reformed and on father's side Lutheran. While 
a boy I lived for three years with Mennonites 
and attended their church. I attended a Mora- 
vian Sunday-school, was taught by a Presbyte- 
rian Sunday-school teacher, educated at a Uni- 
tarian theological school, graduated from a 
Christian college and a Congregational theolog- 
ical seminary, and took postgraduate work at a 
United Presbyterian university. I was born and 
raised in southeastern Pennsylvania, which may 
be called "The Cradle of Religious Liberty" in 



PREFACE xv 

America. For while the colonies to the north 
and south persecuted people on account of therr 
religious opinions, Penn opened his settlement to 
all the religiously persecuted in America and 
Europe. As a result Pennsylvania became a 
great sectarian stronghold. To-day some twenty 
denominations have either their national head- 
quarters or leading national center in south- 
eastern Pennsylvania. The reader can readily 
see how my contact with this Babel of sectarian- 
ism affected my religious life and experience. 

There are some things that seem too sacred 
to drag before the public. For years I said very 
little in my public ministry about my experience 
with doubt. While, as city evangelist of Greater 
Pittsburg, I was assisting a minister in a re- 
vival, he learned incidentally of my experience 
with infidelity; and as there were a number of 
skeptics in the community, he urged me to preach 
on the subject. The message seemed to do much 
good to the large audience that heard it. Since 
then it has been repeated a number of times, and 
the largest auditoriums have not been able to 
hold the people who were eager to hear it. This 
demonstrates that the message supplies a great 
need, and has encouraged me to prepare this 
book for the public. The Christian Temple in 
Baltimore was packed with people, and on ac- 



xvi PREFACE 

count of the jam the doors were ordered closed 
fy the policeman in charge half an hour be- 
fore time for the service. At Portsmouth, Va., 
twenty-five hundred were crowded into a skating- 
rink, and many failed to get admittance. At 
Halifax, Can., hundreds were turned away. But 
this has been the experience wherever the sermon 
has been thoroughly advertised. To illustrate 
this, I quote from the Harrisonburg (Va.) 
papers of Jan. 9, 191 1, where the sermon was 
delivered the night before in Assembly Hall, the 
largest auditorium in the city. About sixteen 
hundred people were jammed in the hall and 
many crowded out. It was the largest audience 
that ever assembled in that city for a religious 
service. 

"Evangelist Lutz says that on every occasion 
on which he has delivered his address on 'My 
Conversion from Infidelity,' no matter how large 
the hall may have been, people have turned away 
for lack of room. Last night's attendance at 
Assembly Hall maintained the record. Presum- 
ably the hall has never been more closely packed. 
Seats, stage, box, aisles, windows, doorways, 
were filled, and many found place in the flies of 
the theater. A number couldn't find places any- 
where and went away. Mr. Lutz is a fine ex- 
ample of evangelist. He has a magnetic per- 



PREFACE xvii 

sonality and a strong, oratorical way of talking, 
fluent in speech and filled with figurative 
language and the phrases of his profession." — 
Harrisonburg Daily Times. 

"Evangelist H. F. Lutz spoke last night at 
Assembly Hall on 'The Story of My Conversion 
from Infidelity.' The audience showed close at- 
tention and earnestness. Many were turned 
away because of the crowded condition of the 
hall. Many people from the near-town sections 
came to attend the service.'' — Harrisonburg Daily 
News. 

I trust that my bitter experience with ration- 
alism, infidelity and doubt will help to reveal 
their true nature and thus keep many young 
men from these dangerous rocks, and will help 
to deliver many others from this terrible bond- 
age. May the Father graciously bless my 
humble efforts to win souls to Christ and to 
help bring about Christian union on the primitive 
gospel in order to the Christian conquest of 
the whole world. Henry F. Lutz. 

Millersville, Pa., March 28, 191 1. 



CONTENTS 



PAGB 



Dedication v 

Soul's Struggle in Symbolism vii 

Introduction by Peter Ainslie ix 

Author's Preface • • • • xiii 

PART I. — To Infidelity and Back. 

Chapter I. — To Infidelity and Back I 

Chapter II. — Parting- Message to Unitarian 

School 42 

Chapter III. — Functions and Limitations of 

the Mind. . ." 65 

Chapter IV. — Looking Through Colored 

Glasses .... 96 

Part II. — From Sectarianism to 
Primitive Christianity. 

Chapter I. — Scriptural Baptism 115 

Chapter II. — The New Testament Church- • 152 
Chapter III. — The Church Since the Apos- 
tles 174 

Chapter IV. — Our Neglected Fields 208 



PART I. 

TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 



To Infidelity and Back: 



CHAPTER I. 

To Infidelity and Back. 

To Christ by Way of Rationalism, Unitarianism 
and Infidelity. 

I inherited on the one hand a strong religious 
nature, and on the other a tendency to be inde- 
pendent in thought and to question everything 
before adopting it as a part of my belief. Ever 
since I can remember I was a praying boy, and 
early in life there came to me the desire to de- 
vote myself to the ministry of the gospel. 

Among my earliest religious impressions were 
those received by having the story of the Pa- 
triarchs and Jesus read to me in German by a 
saintly old Mennonite for whom I worked on 
the farm for a year. Among the first things that 
aroused my reason in religion was the declara- 
tion of my Sunday-school teacher that before we 



2 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

are born we are predestined by God either to go 
to heaven or to hell, and that anything we might 
do would not' alter our eternal destiny. This 
declaration came like a thunderbolt into my re- 
ligious life, and stirred up a violent agitation 
from which it took me ten years to fully deliver 
myself. I was now about fourteen years old, and 
already had a desire to measure everything in 
the crucible of logic or cause and effect, and to 
accept nothing which did not come within the 
range of my reason. Looking at things from 
the standpoint of cause and effect, I was nat- 
urally caught in the meshes of fatalism, and this 
aggravated the religious agitation above referred 
to. 

At this time in my life there arose many re- 
ligious questions, and the answers I received 
from religious teachers tended to drive me away 
from the church rather than to it. I feel to-day 
that if my case had been clearly understood and 
the nature and the limits of the finite mind had 
been patiently pointed out to me, in its relation 
to faith and revelation, I could have been saved 
years of agony on the sea of rationalism. But 
my questions were not answered and my honest 
doubts were rebuked, so that I was naturally 
driven out of sympathy with the church and 
Bible, since I judged that my doubts could not 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 3 

be satisfied because religion itself is unreason- 
able. 

Through the kindness of Christian people the 
way opened to prepare myself for the ministry. 
But by this time many religious doubts and per- 
plexities were in the way, and I decided that I 
would a thousand times rather be an honest 
doubter out of the church and ministry than a 
hypocrite in it. Thus my fond hope of entering 
the ministry had to be given up, and instead I 
determined to use the teaching profession as a 
stepping-stone to law, and law as a means of 
serving humanity. 

I was very fond of study, and read scores of 
books on all kinds of subjects. Emerson was 
my favorite, and I procured and read his com- 
plete works. Gibbon and Macaulay were eagerly 
read as revealing some of the religious life of 
the world. Ingersoll, with many others, got his 
turn. But the book that produced the greatest 
effect on my life at this time was Fleetwood's 
"Life of Christ," with a short history of the dif- 
ferent religious bodies of the world attached. 
Through my reading and observations I became 
greatly perplexed over the religious divisions of 
the world. I discovered that thousands of people 
had died as martyrs for all kinds of religions 
and sects, and that each claimed to have the truth 



4 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

and to teach the right way to heaven. I con- 
cluded that since they teach such contradictory 
doctrines they cannot possibly all be right, al- 
though they might all be wrong. I formed a 
desire to make a thorough study of all the dif- 
ferent religious bodies of the world, to find out 
where the truth is, if there is any in religion. 
My first information along this line was obtained 
in the above-named history of the religious 
bodies of the world. Being of a rationalistic 
turn of mind, I was naturally very favorably im- 
pressed with Unitarianism and its teaching. I 
sent for a number of their works and read them 
with great interest. I learned many things that 
have been a benediction to my life ever since, 
but you will see later on how far it satisfied my 
rationalistic proclivities. I learned to my delight 
that I could enter a Unitarian theological school 
to prepare for the ministry without first joining 
a church or signing a creed. For a person in 
my state of mind nothing better could have pre- 
sented itself. I determined to go there and make 
a thorough study of the Bible and all the dif- 
ferent religious bodies, and to fearlessly follow 
the truth wherever it might lead me. 

The time came and I entered the school. And 
a fine school it was from an intellectual stand- 
point and for the purpose of investigation. I 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 5 

have been a student at six educational institu- 
tions since I left the high school, but this was 
far ahead of the others for the development of 
the logical and philosophical faculties. Here 
there was absolutely no restraint to thought ; and 
all kinds of systems and ideas were represented, 
from philosophical anarchy to socialism and 
from mysticism to materialism. The moral and 
spiritual earnestness I expected to find among 
the Unitarians I did not find, especially among 
the younger and more radical ones. Its effect, 
on the whole, was to relax rather than intensify 
the moral fiber. Their ideals seemed so grand 
and noble that I thought those possessed with 
them could scarcely find time to eat and sleep 
in their, zeal to put them into practise ; but I dis- 
covered that they not only had plenty of time 
to eat and sleep, but also for dancing, card-play- 
ing, theater-going, etc. Many of the young men 
studying for the ministry often spent a large 
part of the night in card-playing, and the Sun- 
day-school room served also as a dancing-floor. 
Unitarians pride themselves upon the high stand- 
ard of morality among their people and upon 
the few prisoners you find among their members, 
but this is due to the character of the people they 
reach rather than to the restraining influence of 
their teaching 



6 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

My reading had given me a wrong impression 
as to the teaching of Unitarianism. Like many 
others, I was fascinated and enticed by the 
writings of conservative Unitarians, whose con- 
tention is largely against the bad theology of 
human creeds; but the present-day teaching of 
the vanguard of Unitarianism is an entirely dif- 
ferent thing. It rejects all the miraculous in the 
Bible, and, in many cases, even denies the ex- 
istence of a personal God. All the students were 
required to conduct chapel prayers in turn. 
Those who did not believe in a personal God ex- 
plained that they were pronouncing an apos- 
trophe to the great impersonal and unknowable 
force working in the universe. I had read Ch'an- 
ning, Clark, Hale, Emerson, and other conserva- 
tive Unitarians, and found much food for my 
soul, but I discovered that these were considered 
old "fogies" and back numbers by most of the 
students in attendance. 

But I must tell you of my evolution along the 
line of rationalism. My rationalistic proclivities 
were given a free rein. And as a child, when 
left to run away, will soon stop and return to its 
mother, so this freedom was the natural cure for 
my intellectual delusion. To the statement of 
the creeds, "The Father is God, and the Son is 
God, and the. Holy Ghost is God ; and yet there 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 7 

are not three Gods, but one God/' my ration- 
alism replied, that is logically inconceivable, 
therefore I became a Unitarian. No sooner was 
I happy in this faith than a Universalist ad- 
dressed me and said, "If you want to be rational, 
you must give up your belief in eternal punish- 
ment, for God could not give eternal punishment 
for a finite sin." As a rationalist, what could I 
do but yield, and so I became a universalist Uni- 
tarian. I felt I had at last found the truth, but 
my peace was short ; for a student accused me 
of being irrational, "because," said he, "an om- 
nipotent, loving God would give an infinitely 
large amount of good and an infinitely small 
amount of evil ; but an infinitely small amount 
of evil is not perceptible, evil is perceptible, 
therefore there is no such God." This was an 
awful pill and gave a terrible shock to my re- 
ligious sensibilities, but as rationalism was my 
guide, I had to follow on or stand accused as a 
superstitious coward. 

Again rationalism declared, through my 
teachers, that all the supernatural must be elim- 
inated from the Bible as mythical and unreliable, 
and so I was robbed of my Christ, my God and 
my Bible. Misguided by rationalism, I thought 
it my conscientious duty to accept, step by step, 
the dictates of destructive criticism until the 



8 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

Bible was only inspired to me in religion as 
Kant in philosophy, Milton in poetry, and Bee- 
thoven in music. But when I came to the end 
of the matter I discovered that my conscience, 
which had urged me along, was gone also. For 
I was gravely taught that conscience is merely a 
creature of experience and education, and that 
it is right to lie or do anything else so long as 
you do it out of love. Doubtless you have all 
heard of the farmer and his wife at the World's 
Fair who went to see the ''Exit." There was 
nothing in it, and of course they had to pay to 
get in again. This was my bitter experience with 
rationalism. I thought I was following a great 
light, but I discovered there was nothing in it, 
that I was following an ignis fatuus. Ration- 
alism has indeed proven the "Exit" to multitudes, 
from the peace, joy and moral security that 
accompany faith in evangelical Christianity intc 
the desert of doubt, darkness and despair. 

But not even here did I find a staying-place. 
For rationalism, in its bold confidence, led me 
on and on until it brought me to materialism and 
absurdity. In going too far, it revealed its true 
nature and character, and thus led me to see its 
fallacy and enabled me to get free from its bond- 
age. From atheism it led me to fatalism, and 
declared that there is no free will and conse- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 9 

quently people are not to blame for their sins 
and shortcomings. If we "shall reap as we sow," 
it declared that we cannot give anything to any- 
body and therefore philanthropy is a delusion.. 

But I taught rationalism in guile one day by 
which it thoroughly exhibited the absurdity of 
its teaching. Its continual song was, "You dare 
not believe what you cannot conceive to be true." 
So it declared one day, in its bold folly, that 
an object cannot move in the space in which it 
is, nor in the space in which it is not ; therefore 
you cannot conceive of an object moving; there- 
fore you cannot move to walk, eat or live. So 
the conclusion to which my rationalistic guide 
finally led me was that I must sit down and die 
or be irrational. Well, this was too much for 
me. I refused to die, and concluded that ration- 
alism is not a safe guide, and commenced to in- 
vestigate as to where the difficulty lay. 

But before I tell you how I discovered the 
false tricks of rationalism, let me say that all 
these things into which rationalism led me were 
against my strong religious nature, and gave me 
continual and excruciating pain. I never for a 
day ceased to pray to God for help ; for while 
my intellect was held in doubt through the bond- 
age of rationalism, my heart held on to God, and 
thus I was in a mighty conflict. In my despair I 



10 TO INFIDELITY AXD BACK 

cried unto God, and when he had accomplished 
his purpose concerning me, he set me free. 
Blessed be his name! Surely "he bringeth the 
blind by a way that they knew not, and leads 
them into paths that they have not known. He 
makes darkness light before them, and crooked 
things straight, and does not utterly forsake the 
honest in heart." 

Most people have come to their religious and 
political position by heredity and are held there 
by inertia. If you can set a person free from 
this hereditary inertia, you can convert him to 
almost anything at will ; for it is but few who 
are sufficiently informed on any subject to de- 
fend it against an expert, and none are thus qual- 
ified on all subjects. So when I entered this 
school, free from all hereditary ideas, determined 
to accept every position that I could not refute 
in argument, you can imagine my experience. 
At first I was converted from one thing to an- 
other by the different students and professors 
until I was about all the "arians," "isms," and 
"ists" ever heard of, together with a number of 
other things for which they have no names 
as yet. 

But how did I discover the fallacy of ration- 
alism? and how was I delivered from its mighty 
clutches by which it had dragged me from one 



TO INFIDELITY AXD BACK 11 

pitfall to another so ruthlessly? My deliverance 
came from a source where you would perhaps 
least expect it. It was through the study of 
John Stuart Mill's "System of Logic." In it I 
learned "that inconceivability is not a criterion of 
impossibility," as rationalism claims. On the 
other hand, that we know things to be true that 
are just as inconceivable as that there can be 
two mountains without a valley between. 

Let me introduce a few of these contra- 
dictions or inconceivabilities. Before you can 
reach your mouth with your hand, you must go 
over half the distance, then half of the rest, then 
half of the rest, and so on ad infinitum. But 
you cannot make the infinite number of divisions, 
and therefore you cannot reach your lips. Again, 
you cannot conceive of extension of space or 
time without a limit, nor can you conceive of a 
limit to space or time. Here conceivability con- 
tradicts itself. Furthermore, you cannot con- 
ceive of existence without a cause, nor of a 
cause without existence. To the statement of 
the believer that, "as the wonderful mechanism 
of the watch presumes a designer, so the in- 
finitely more wonderful mechanism of the uni- 
verse presumes God, the infinite designer," 
Ingersoll replied that this is simply to jump over 
the difficulty by an infinite assumption. Inger- 



12 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

soil, on the other hand, claimed that the material 
universe has always existed; apparently una- 
ware that he thus was guilty of the same fal- 
lacy of which he accused others, by assuming 
infinite existence without a cause. The difference 
is that the believer's assumption gives us a per- 
sonal God, a kind, loving heavenly Father who 
provides for the eternal bliss and welfare of his 
children, while Ingersoll's assumption gives 
death and darkness and despair. 

An object thrown from one point to another 
is always at some point, therefore it has no time 
to move from one point to another. And yet 
we know that it does move, even though we can- 
not conceive how it can do so. Again, suppose 
that the hour-hand of your clock is at eleven and 
the minute-hand at twelve. Now, you cannot 
conceive how the minute-hand can overtake the 
hour-hand, although you know by observation 
that it does overtake it. For by the time the 
minute-hand gets to eleven, the hour-hand has 
passed on to twelve, and by the time the min- 
ute-hand has reached twelve, the hour-hand 
has passed beyond it. Every time the minute- 
hand comes to where the hour-hand now is, the 
hour-hand has passed beyond. The distance be- 
comes less and less, but theoretically, or in con- 
ceivabilitv. the one can never overtake the other. 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 13 

Through this line of reasoning I learned, 
clearly and once for all, that inconceivability is 
not a proof of impossibility; but, on the other 
hand, that we know many things to be true that 
are not conceivable to the finite mind, and there- 
fore we must follow truth learned by experience 
and observation, irrespective of rationalism. In 
this way the mighty fetters of rationalism that 
held me in bondage were cut and I was set free 
to search for the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. I 
learned the limitations of the finite intellect and 
the truth of God's word when he says: "For my 
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your 
ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the 
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my 
ways higher than your ways and my thoughts 
than your thoughts." "Hath not God made fool- 
ish the wisdom of this world? For after that 
in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew 
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of 
preaching to save them that believe." 

After the empirical school of philosophy had 
taught me that we must follow inductions based 
on experience and observation rather than ration- 
alism or conceivability, I began to value Paul's 
admonition, "Prove all things, hold fast to that 
which is good." If inductive philosophers have 
often been opposed to religion and the Bible, it 



14 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

is because they have not carried their inductions 
far enough to cover the entire world of facts. It 
is admitted by all historians and observers that 
prayer and faith and religious convictions have 
been among the mightiest forces at work in the 
world, and any system of reasoning that does 
not take these facts into consideration is neither 
philosophical nor scientific. 

To illustrate what is meant by saying that 
we must follow experience rather than conceiva- 
bility, let us suppose that you are suffering from 
a malignant disease and you hear of a medicine 
that has cured this disease whenever it has been 
tried, and you know of nothing else that will 
cure it. Would it not be foolish for you to 
refuse to use the medicine because you cannot 
conceive how it produces the cure? It might be 
discovered later that it was not the medicine, but 
your belief in its curative qualities, that pro- 
duced the result. But this would not affect your 
common-sense duty in the matter. If certain de- 
sirable results follow the doing of a certain 
thing, we are bound to do that thing until we 
know how to get the good results without do- 
ing it. 

This reveals the folly and inhumanity of 
the conduct of some infidels towards religious 
people. When I was minister of a church in 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 15 

Ohio, I was visited by a noted infidel. After he 
went on in a tirade against preachers and Chris- 
tians, I asked him if he was not an unhappy 
man. At first he denied it; but I called his at- 
tention to some of his utterances, and he soon 
admitted that he was a very unhappy man. But 
he said he was unhappy because he knew too 
much, and claimed that Christians were so happy 
because they were ignorant and deluded. He 
claimed to be a great lover of humanity, and 
although, according to his profession, he had 
no God or conscience or judgment to require it 
of him, he spent his time in spreading the knowl- 
edge and wisdom which made people unhappy 
by destroying that which he admitted gave people 
great joy and peace and happiness. Suppose a 
man should come to town who is as lean as a 
skeleton and is slowly dying because he is not 
getting enough nourishment out of the food he 
eats, and should begin to lecture well-nourished 
and healthy people for eating the food they are 
eating. Would we not put him down as a fool? 
Well, if he would add the claim that we are 
well fed because we are ignorant and deluded, 
while he is suffering and dying because he knows 
tco much on the food question, he would be on 
a par with many of our infidelic friends. . 

It is said that Beecher and In^ersoll were 



lti TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

both present at a banquet in New York City. 
Ingersoll brought a railing accusation against 
Christianity. Everybody expected Beecher to re- 
ply, but he held his peace until later in the 
evening, when it became his turn to speak. 
When Beecher arose he said: "When I came to 
this hall to-night I saw an old, crippled woman 
wending her way across the crow T ded street on 
crutches. When she had reached about midway, 
a burly ruffian came along and knocked the 
crutches out from under her, and she fell splash 
into the mud." Turning to Ingersoll, he said, 
"What do you think of that, Colonel?" "The 
villain!" replied Ingersoll. Beecher, pointing to 
Ingersoll, said: "Thou art the man! Suffering, 
heart-broken, dying humanity is wending its way 
through this world of sorrow and turmoil on the 
crutches of Christianity. You, sir, come along 
and knock them out from under them, but 
offer nothing in their place." It was a crush- 
ing blow to Ingersoll and his gospel of despair. 
We do not understand how spirit and matter 
can be inter-related, and we can not conceive 
that our willing it can move our arm ; but this 
does not deter us from moving, because we 
know through experience that we can move. We 
do not understand the philosophy of digestion, 
and we cannot conceive how bread and butter 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 17 

can have any relation to thought and life; but 
we know by experience that they do, and we 
go on eating and living. We cannot conceive 
how the same grass produces lamb, pork and 
beef; but we keep on raising stock just the 
same, because we are guided by facts learned 
by experience and observation rather than by 
conceivability. We do reach our mouth, the 
minute-hand does overtake the hour-hand, ob- 
jects do move in space, etc., rationalism and in- 
conceivability to the contrary notwithstanding. 
Man is a religious being, and we know by 
experience that religion gives him joy and brings 
him good. If we had no revealed religion, 
science and duty would compel us to develop a 
religious system out of our religious experiences. 
This is what has actually been done by the dif- 
ferent peoples of the earth who know not the 
revelation of God in the Bible. The secret of 
the hold that even a false religion has upon 
people is the fact that it does them good and 
gives them happiness by exercising the pious 
emotions of their being, even though it may 
bring them harm in other ways. Even a religion 
based on human experience is better than none; 
for it is better to feed the religious nature on 
husks than to starve it out altogether. To this 
rgree the words of Paul when he says that God 



18 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

"made of one blood all nations of men for to 
dwell on all the face of the earth . . . that they 
should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel 
after him, and find him." But while man, un- 
aided by direct revelation, can grope in the dark 
and feel after God, and can invent systems of 
religion based on experience that are better than 
none, any man that accepts facts and testimony 
will soon discover that God has not thus left 
us in the dark on religious matters, but has "ap- 
pointed a day in which he will judge the world 
in righteousness by that man whom he has or- 
dained, whereof he has given assurance unto all 
men, in that he has raised him from the dead/' 

It is said that a lawyer and a noted preacher, 
who was a lecturer, happened to meet at a hotel 
breakfast-table. The lawyer suspected that his 
companion was a preacher, and, as he was an 
infidel, he thought he had a good opportunity 
to give a thrust at the Bible. 

"Excuse me," said the lawyer, "I take it from 
your appearance that you are a preacher." 

"Yes, sir," said the preacher. 

"Well, now," said the lawyer, "don't you find 
a great many contradictions and difficulties you 
cannot understand in the Bible?" 

"Yes, sir," replied the preacher. 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK lli 

"How, then," said the lawyer, "can you con- 
tinue to believe in it?" 

"Why," said the preacher, "do you see what 
I am doing with the bones of this fish? I lay 
them aside and enjoy the good of the fish. So 
with the Bible. I lay aside the things I cannot 
understand, and feast upon the rich spiritual 
food it contains, willing to wait until all mys- 
teries shall be removed hereafter." 

If the finite mind could understand every- 
thing contained in the Bible, it would become 
worthless as a revelation, for the finite mind 
could produce it. But since it reveals the in- 
finite mind, we must expect it to contain things 
that the finite mind cannot understand. We can 
understand the evidence that it is from God and 
for our good, and it is reasonable that we should 
accept its great truths by faith, although we. may 
not now be able to see how all the truths it re- 
veals are consistent with each other. "Let us 
hear the conclusion of the whole matter : Fear 
God, and keep his commandments : for this is 
the whole duty of man." 

As has often been said, no one can do better 
than to live the pure, clean, benevolent life that 
Jesus inculcated and incarnated. If you imitate 
him in goodness and good deeds, you are pur- 
suing the best possible course, even if the Bible 



20 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

is not true. If, on the other hand, the Bible is 
true, and you do not live for Christ, you are 
doomed for ever and ever. 

Having been delivered from the bondage of 
rationalism, I found my way back to Christ with 
comparative ease. If experience and facts are 
our ultimate guides, then we must trust the testi- 
mony of history. With the help of the Bi-Mil- 
Icnnial Telescope on the opposite page, and limit- 
less similar testimony, we can trace the existence 
of the Bible clear to the days of the Apostles. 
None ever had better means of knowing the 
facts they bore witness to than the Apostles, and 
none ever gave stronger proof that they sincerely 
told the truth as they knew it. The Gospels be- 
ing genuine and reliable, the life and words and 
miracles of Jesus they narrate, give sufficient 
proof of the divinity of Christ to satisfy every 
reasonable demand of the intellect. This is 
especially true concerning the resurrection of 
Christ, on which the proof of Christianity hinges. 
"He showed himself alive after his passion by 
many infallible proofs." And if he arose from 
the dead, he was demonstrated by it to be the 
Son of God. And if he is the Son of God, then 
the Bible is the Word of God. for he has en- 
dorsed it all. Thus there were restored to me 
Christ, God and mis Word of truth. The thing 




I! 



22 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

that robbed me of these was rationalism, but it 
had been proven. false and therefore was ruled 
out of court. 

Unitarians used to tell me that Christ was 
the Son of God, but we all are sons of God. I 
now saw that Christ was the Son of God in the 
special and peculiar sense in which he claimed, 
or he was a fool. When he was on trial he was 
asked upon oath whether he was the Son of God 
or not, and he answered "Yes" when it cost his 
life to do so. If he meant that he was the son 
of God in the same sense in which we are, all 
he would have had to do was to explain and he 
could have saved his life. 

The proof that Christianity is from God as. 
revealed in its effect upon the life of individuals, 
communities and nations, is so apparent and has 
been pointed out so often that I will give it but a 
passing notice. "If any man willeth to do his 
will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it 
is of God, or whether I speak from myself," was 
Christ's challenge, and millions have verified it 
in their own religious experience. Nearly all the 
voluntary educational and philanthropic institu- 
tions of the world are supported by Christian 
people, and the nations of the earth are pros- 
perous, enlightened and influential in the exact 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 23 

proportion as their people are intelligent and 
consecrated followers of the lowly Nazarene. 

It was thus that I found my way back to 
Christ as my Lord and Saviour, and I never be- 
fore fully appreciated the words of Jesus, "Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." The truth dawned 
upon me gradually, but with irresistible force. 
How often have we been perplexed and in doubt 
on some great question of truth or duty until 
finally the solution came to us as if by magic. 
Through what the psychologists call subcon- 
scious cerebration our mind has been working 
at the great problem even when our conscious 
attention was given to other matters. I have had 
a number of such experiences before and since, 
and, had I not examined them critically, I might 
easily have been led to believe they were direct 
revelations from heaven. 

For many months the great question had been 
occupying my mind by day and by night. Finally 
the solution came as clear as a revelation from 
God. It wakened me in the still of the night and 
ravished my soul with peace and joy unspeak- 
able. I arose and took a walk into the country 
to a mountain spring and back. I shall never 
forget that night, and the ecstatic joy it brought 
to me. My religious nature had been outraged 



24 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

so long that when it was set free it returned to 
its Lord with a violent bound. The fittest words 
I could find to express my feelings are in the 
103d Psalm : "Bless the Lord, O my soul ; and 
all that is within me, bless his holy name." 

The question as to what church I should join, 
or what religious body I should affiliate with, 
now confronted me and demanded solution. As 
I already intimated, I was perplexed, and partly 
led to doubt and confusion by the many different 
religious bodies, all claiming to be right. One of 
my objects in entering this school was to make 
a thorough study of the different religious bodies 
and their doctrines. One incident that helped 
me in the solution of this problem was an occur- 
rence in our New Testament Greek class. The 
professor declared that all Greek scholars of 
note are agreed that the proper meaning of the 
word ''baptism" in the New Testament is to im- 
merse. As I was raised in a pedobaptist church, 
this declaration was a great surprise to me, but 
I looked up the authorities and found that the 
professor had stated the facts correctly. 

We had a class that made a study of the 
character, government and teaching of the dif- 
ferent religious bodies. In this study I was es- 
pecially impressed with the polity and teaching 
of the people designated as "Disciples of Christ," 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 25 

or "Christians." I procured their literature and 
made a thorough study of their position. I 
naturally found myself in harmony with their 
teaching. I had myself come to see the folly of 
enforcing upon all believers the speculative the- 
ology of the creeds, and the weakness and waste 
that result from a divided church. My experi- 
ence revealed to me the relative value of human 
wisdom and God's wisdom as found in his Book. 
The thought of preaching Christ rather than 
theology, and of restoring the apostolic church 
in its teachings, ordinances and practices, came 
to me as a godsend in my condition of mind. I 
was, however, very slow to act in this matter, as 
I had been deceived before and it was my desire 
not to make a mistake again. After a year's con- 
sideration and considerable correspondence with 
one of their preachers, I finally united with the 
Christian Church at New Castle, Pa. I have 
been preaching the plea for Christian union on 
the primitive gospel ever since, and the longer I 
preach it the more I see its beauty and power. 
Having been delivered, through the goodness 
of God, from this blinding cloud of rationalism, 
let us take a backward look at it and its chief 
product — Unitarianism — and let us see what les- 
son God would teach us through it. Unitarian- 
ism, as a church movement, started near the 



26 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

beginning of the last century. It enlisted many 
of the best hearts, brains and purses of this 
country. It had Harvard University back of it. 
It numbered among its followers most of the 
great poets, historians and prose writers of our 
country. It has flooded the country with free 
literature, and has furnished to thousands of 
ministers its standard works without money and 
without price. No movement ever seemed to 
have such mighty agencies back of it to insure 
its rapid spread. And yet, after a century of 
effort, what do we see as the result? .Only a few 
hundred churches, most of which are numerically 
weak and enlist only a certain class of people. 

My conviction of the depressing, devitalizing 
and disintegrating effect of Unitarianism has 
been intensified through my recent experience in 
evangelistic work in New England. The ration- 
alistic liberalism of Unitarianism has largely per- 
meated New England Protestantism. It was not 
an accident that it was in New England, where, 
to a large body of clergymen, a speaker declared, 
with applause, that "Protestantism is decaying 
and will soon be displaced by a new form of 
Catholicism.". Here Protestantism is indeed de- 
caying through its contact with Unitarian teach- 
ing, and is already largely displaced by old 
Catholicism and new Christian Science and other 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 27 

antichristian delusions. Xowhere else did I ever 
see Protestant churches so saturated with worldly 
pleasures and so indifferent about the salvation 
of souls. It was here I had the humiliating ex- 
perience of sitting in a union Thanksgiving 
service where the preacher called the Pilgrim 
Fathers religions fanatics, and spoke of words 
writers of the Pentateuch put into the mouth of 
Moses to give theim influence with the people. 
Yet I never saw a sign of disapproval in. the 
audience or heard a word of criticism. It is true 
he was a Universalist preacher, but that makes 
it all the worse. To think that Protestantism 
has so degenerated in a Xew England city that 
a preacher who does not believe in the divinity 
of Christ nor in the inspiration of the Bible 
should be appointed to represent it on such an 
occasion. It is enough to make the Pilgrim 
Fathers turn in their graves and groan for pain. 
Had present-day Protestantism of Xew England 
a fraction of the moral and spiritual earnestness 
that the Pilgrim Fathers possessed, it might have 
been spared the abject humility of sprawling in 
weakness before the same vaunting religious in- 
tolerance of Catholicism that through cruel and 
bloody persecution drove the Pilgrim Fathers to 
"the bleak Xew England shore" for safety and 
religious liberty. 



28 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

When a prominent Catholic recently aped the 
Protestant clergymen by declaring that Protes- 
tantism is decaying, the preacher at Tremont 
Temple called it a "damnable lie." This is a 
hopeful sign, and indicates that the sick man is 
not dead yet. It shows that at least some think 
it is not true, or wish it not true ; and if enough 
get a strong desire that it shall not be true, it 
will not be true. When we renounce ration- 
alism and its products it will not be true. 

At a meeting of one of the leading ministerial 
associations of New England, at which the writer 
was present, the speaker of the day declared that 
the church has been claiming too much for itself. 
The contents of the speech indicated that he had 
reference to its claim of supernatural power to 
transform the sinner. He also said he had given 
up the effort to reconcile the first chapters of the 
Bible with science. The significance is in the 
fact that some Protestants acquiesce in such 
teaching, and that they are in harmony with the 
doctrines of Unitarianism. 

Although its advocates must admit that Uni- 
tarianism is a monumental failure in organizing 
churches, it is their boast that it has powerfully 
affected other religious bodies. This fact we ad- 
mit ; but as the effect is devitalizing, disorgan- 
izing and ultimately demoralizing, we consider 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 29 

the result the crowning shame rather than the 
crowning glory of Unitarianism. 

That the liberal theology resulting from 
rationalism and championed in this country by 
Unitarianism is merely negative and destructive, 
is evidenced on every hand. Dr. Pearson, in the 
Missionary Review, has recently pointed out its 
fatal effects in the mission fields, and still more 
recently it has been compelled to confess its own 
defeat in Germany, where it originated and 
where it has found its chief support. The evi- - 
dence of this is found in the Literary Digest of 
Feb. 25, 191 1, where we find the following: 

That "liberal" theology has made an almost utter 
failure in Germany is asserted by one of its leading 
spokesmen in a liberal religious organ. It consists too 
much of mere negation, he thinks, and has no strong 
faith in anything. The masses have rejected it, and 
the educated have accepted it only in small numbers. 
Practically it is a failure, and he demands a recon- 
struction along new lines, with new ideals and new 
methods. This courageous liberal is Rev. Dr. Rittel- 
meyer, of Nuremberg, and he writes in the Christliche 
Welt (Tubingen). Here are the main points of his 
argument : 

"Let us ask honestly what results modern theology- 
has attained practically. As far as the great masses of 
workingmen are concerned, practically nothing has 
been gained. They either do not understand it or they 
distrust it. All the public discussions and populariza- 



30 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

tion of modern critical views have not found any echo 
or sympathy among the ranks of the laboring people. 

"And how about the educated classes? It has long 
since been the boast and hobby of advanced theology 
that it, and it alone, will satisfy the religious longings 
of the educated man who has broken with the tra- 
ditional dogma and doctrines of orthodox Christianity. 
But what are the actual facts in the case? It is a fact 
that there are a considerable number among the edu- 
cated who thankfully confess that they can accept 
Christianity only in the form in which it is taught by 
the advanced theologian. But how exceedingly small 
this number is ! A periodical like the Christliche Welt, 
the only paper of its kind, has not been able to secure 
more than five thousand subscribers, although its con- 
tributors are the most brilliant in the land of scholars 
and thinkers ; while periodicals that are exponents of 
the older views are read by tens and even hundreds of 
thousands. There are whole classes of society among 
the educated who are antagonistic to liberal tendencies 
in religion. Among these are the officers in the army 
and the navy, practitioners of the technical arts and 
of engineering, and almost to a man the whole world 
of business. It is foolish to close our eyes to these 
facts." 

What is the matter? asks this writer. What is the 
weakness of liberal and advanced theological thought? 
These are some of the answers : 

"One trouble is that modern theology has entirely 
grown out of criticism. Its weakness is intellectualism ; 
it is a negative movement. We can understand the cry 
of the orthodox, that advanced theology is eliminating 
one thing after the other from our religious thought, 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 31 

and then asks, What is left? True, we answer, God is 
left. But is it not the case that the modern God- 
Father faith is generally a very weak and attenuated 
faith in a Providence, and nothing more? And on this 
subject, too, we quarrel among ourselves, whether a 
God-Father troubles himself about little things only or 
about great things too, such as the forgiveness of sins. 
We do the same thing with Jesus. W r e speak of him 
as of a unique personality, as the highest revelation of 
the Father, and the like, but always connected with a 
certain skeptical undercurrent of thought ; but we do 
not appreciate him in his deepest soul and in the great 
motives of his life. He is not for modern theology 
what he is for orthodoxy, the Saviour of the world and 
the Redeemer of mankind." 

Quite naturally this open confession of a pro- 
nounced liberal attracts more than ordinary attention. 
The liberal papers, including the Christliche Well itself, 
pass it by without further comment, but the conserva- 
tives speak out boldly. Representative of the latter is 
the Evangelische Lutherische Kirclienzeitung, of Leip- 
zig, which says : 

"The psychological and spiritual solution of Rittel- 
meyer's problem is not so hard to find. The soul of 
man can not live on negations. To stir the soul there 
must be positive principles and epoch-making historical 
facts, such as are offered by the Scriptural teachings 
of Christ and his words. There can be religious life 
.only where there is faith in him who is the truth and 
the life. Liberal theology has failed because it has 
nothing to offer." 

Dr. Harnack, its great high priest, found it 
an unsatisfying portion, and, doubtless influenced 



32 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

by its failure, has resigned and turned his ener- 
gies into other channels. 

Unitarianism appeals almost entirely to the 
head and but little to the heart. It supplies a 
kind of abnormal stimulant to the intellect, but 
usually freezes out the emotions. It is like the 
arctic regions, where they have six months of 
light, but no heat, and where consequently there 
is no growth of any kind. It is broad, but really 
superficial and shallow. It is like a piece of 
rubber stretched over a wide surface ; it is wide, 
but it becomes very thin. Emerson seemed to 
recognize how shallow rationalism makes people 
when he declared that "a small consistency is the 
hobgoblin of little minds — little philosophers, 
little statesmen and little divines." The finite 
mind cannot see the consistency of the great and 
deep truths of life and God. To try to deal 
with these great questions with human logic is 
like manipulating a circle with a break in it. 
Each reasoner calls attention to the break in the 
circle of logic of others, but dexterously manipu- 
lates his own circle so as to hide its missing link. 

Rationalism is a delusion and a snare, and, 
when followed to its logical conclusion leads to 
absurdity and death. Fortunately, most people 
who are tainted with this disease do not follow 
it to its legitimate conclusions. Through pre- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 3S 

conceived and inherited ideas and sentimental in- 
ertia, they are held to their moorings. But, un- 
fortunately, their pupils are not always thus pro- 
tected. Many preachers who are held in their 
place by religious habits and associations, give 
expression to rationalistic ideas that take lodg- 
ment in the minds of young men who are not 
surrounded with religious habits and associations 
to hold them ; and who, following these rational- 
istic ideas to their logical conclusion, are led to 
doubt and confusion. I believe that hundreds 
of thinking young men have been led away from 
Christ and the church in this way, all because 
they and their teacher did not recognize the true 
character of rationalism and the proper functions 
and limitations of the finite intellect. Manse! 
gives a proper diagnosis of rationalism in the 
following words : 

"The rationalist . . . assigns to some superior tri- 
bunal the right of determining what (in revelation) is 
essential to religion and what is not; he claims the 
privilege of accepting or rejecting any given revelation,, 
wholly or in part, according as it does or does not sat- 
isfy the conditions of some higher criterion, to be sup- 
plied by human consciousness." Rationalism proceeds 
''by paring down supposed excrescences. Commencing 
with a preconceived theory of the purpose of a revela- 
tion, and of the form which it ought to assume, it 
proceeds to remove or reduce all that will not har- 



34 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

monize with this leading idea." "Rationalism tends to 
destroy revealed religion altogether, by obliterating the 
whole distinction between the human and the divine. 
If it retain any portion of revealed truth, as such, it 
does so, not in consequence, but in defiance, of its fun- 
damental principle." 

But while many ministers are not much in- 
jured apparently by their rationalistic taint, many 
others are, and all are more or less. Eternity 
alone will reveal how much faith in God's Word, 
and therefore in God himself, has been weakened 
or destroyed by this dread mental disease. Look 
at the destructive ravages of rationalistic criti- 
cism of the Bible. The Unitarians have com- 
pleted this work and have eliminated all the 
supernatural from the Divine Record. But it is 
the preachers in the evangelical churches who are 
following the Unitarians afar off in this matter, 
that are doing the most damage to the faith of 
Christ's followers. I have been there, and know 
how Unitarians look at this matter. They point 
to these evangelical preachers as an evidence that 
the entire religious world is rapidly coming to 
their position. On the other hand, they look at 
these preachers with pity and contempt because 
they do not follow the thing to its logical con- 
clusion, and drop the Bible entirely as a super- 
natural revelation. And I believe the Unitarians 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 35 

are right in this. The same fundamental reasons 
that led the rationalistic critics in the evangelical 
churches to their present conclusions will inevit- 
ably and logically lead to the Unitarian con- 
clusions, whenever preconceived ideas and in- 
herited prejudices are sufficiently relaxed. When 
I first studied this question of destructive higher 
criticism so called (it is often hire criticism) 
from the rationalistic standpoint and under ra- 
tionalistic guides, its conclusions seemed the 
most reasonable thing on earth. I wondered that 
I had not seen it myself long before, and I looked 
with pity upon the deluded victims who did not 
see it. But after I was delivered from rational- 
ism and my eyes were opened, I commenced to 
study the other side of the question and dis- 
covered where I was deceived. - 

Let me give you a few samples of the reason- 
ing of rationalistic criticism as exhibited by its 
strongest advocates. Where it says that Jesus 
walked upon the water, we w r ere gravely in- 
formed that Jesus did not walk upon the water 
at all. It happened to be a foggy morning and 
the disciples were deceived; he was really walk- 
ing on the shore. Where it says "one of the sol- 
diers with a spear pierced his side," we were in- 
formed that the Greek word here means prima- 
rily to prick as with a pin, to pave the way to be- 



36 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

little the wound of Jesus, despite the fact that the 
narrative adds, "straightway there came out 
blood and water." The purpose of this was to 
make way for the theory that Christ did not die 
on the cross, but was simply in a lethargy, and 
when he came to in the tomb he pushed the stone 
away, and this so frightened the soldiers that 
they took to their heels, thinking it was a ghost, 
while Christ escaped to the mountains, where he 
lived secretly the rest of his life and finally died 
a natural death. All this without a scrap of his- 
torical basis, and despite the express declaration 
of the narrative that an expert, who was sent by 
Pilate to ascertain if he was dead, reported that 
he was. This is so contrary to the facts of the 
narrative, and the character of Jesus and his 
disciples, that it is harder to believe it than any 
miracle recorded in the Bible. Why these ridic- 
ulous and absurd conclusions, despite the his- 
torical facts? Simply because of the necessity 
to get rid of the supernatural at the mandates of 
rationalism. To preserve such puerilities, the 
manuscripts were kept in a fire-proof vault lest 
fire should destroy them. The claims of destruc- 
tive criticism are so absurd and ridiculous, when 
looked at from a truly scientific standpoint, that 
I confine myself in this book to exposing the er- 
roneous viewpoint of rationalism, believing that 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 37 

when that is done any one can easily see that 
there is nothing in it. Besides, its quibblings 
have been often and ably exposed by competent 
authors and their works are accessible to all. 

That any one who claims to believe the Bible 
should give his time to teaching innocent and un- 
informed children and adults the conclusions of 
rationalistic criticism seems almost too absurd to 
believe ; and when it is done under the pretense 
of honoring the Bible, it is but another illustra- 
tion of how our moral and intellectual vision 
can be warped and distorted when we look 
through the colored glasses of rationalism and 
bias. 

It is said that a minister kept telling his con- 
gregation that different parts of the Bible were 
myths, legends, etc., and not historical. One of 
his members cut out of her Bible every section he 
said was not true. When he made a pastoral call 
she showed him her mutilated Bible. Upon his 
remonstrance, she replied that he had said that 
these parts were not reliable, and so she did not 
want them as a part of her Bible. He was 
shocked at his own vandalism. 

I have shown that the same rationalistic ob- 
jections that are brought against facts revealed 
in the Bible can be brought against facts revealed 
in nature. The only sensible thing to do is to 



38 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

recognize the limitations of our finite intellects 
and accept all well-authenticated facts, whether 
revealed in the Bible or in nature. We must 
learn that in the very nature of things our finite 
minds cannot fully grasp and comprehend the 
infinite. Therefore we have God's revelation in 
the Bible, which, though not the product of the 
human intellect, fully satisfies its every reason- 
able demand. 

We have also learned that man has by nature 
strong religious emotions, which, if exercised, 
give great joy and peace. Even unguided by 
revelation, they grope after God with the help 
of the finite intellect. These emotions are blind 
and were never intended to give us light. They 
are a source of great joy and power, but must be 
guided and filled by divine revelation to be 
properly exercised. The neglect of this fact has 
led to all kinds of mysticism and fanaticism. 
And while this is better and more helpful than 
cold rationalism, it is nevertheless an unsafe 
guide, and does more harm than good to human- 
ity. Faithfulness compels me to say that, as 
rationalism, so mysticism has found its way into 
the evangelical churches and has done much to 
rob God's Word of its power and to divide 
Christ's 'followers into warring camps. The re- 
ligion that does not thoroughly enlist, exercise 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 39 

and sanctify the human emotions is not worth 
having; but we are not to believe every spirit, 
but to try the spirits by the Word of God. Let 
us law aside our "think-so's" and "feel-so's," 
and let us turn to the revelation that comes 
from above, that our intellects may be flooded 
with light and our emotions may be submerged 
in God's love, so that our entire being — body, 
mind and soul — may be filled, occupied and 
sanctified to the glory of Christ. 

With the Unitarian movement that started 
at the beginning of the last century, with so 
many human instrumentalities back of it, let us 
compare the Apostolic church which was started 
in the first third of the first century by a handful 
of poor, illiterate and despised Galileans. Al- 
though the wealth and culture and political power 
of the world were all against them, at the end 
of the century we are told that they numbered 
five hundred thousand. 

Again let us compare with Unitarianism, this 
modern movement for the restoration of primi- 
tive Christianity which started somewhat later 
than Unitarianism. Its reproach in the eyes of 
men — that it has no literature — is its glory in the 
eyes of God: for the Bible is its literature. Its 
work has been done chiefly among and through 
the common people. At the end of the century 



40 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

it numbered among its adherents more than a 
million and a quarter. While sectarian churches 
numerically much stronger report meager in- 
creases and even decreases, it reports an average 
of over forty thousand increase for the last sev- 
eral years. 

The experiences narrated in this chapter have 
made real to me the belief that God is in every 
act of our life. That through his loving care, 
''all things work together for good to them that 
love God." When I think of how, in his provi- 
dence, he took me away from the community and 
religion of my early neighbors and brought me 
in a mysterious way to a religion and people I 
had never heard of, I am overwhelmed with the 
evidence of his hand in it. 

To the honest doubter I would say, take 
courage, my brother, the Lord will lead you, in 
his providence, to the way, the truth and the life. 
I can testify that he brings the spiritually blind 
by a way that they knew' not and leads them in 
paths they have not known. He makes darkness 
light before them and crooked things straight, 
and will not forsake them if they continue to 
sincerely seek for light until he has accomplished 
his purpose concerning them and brought them to 
the feet of Jesus. 

To those out of Christ I will say, that I have 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 41 

tasted and seen that the Lord is good. After 
having tried both, I have found a hundred times 
more real pleasure in than out of Christ. And 
while I am yet tied to clay and suffer many 
things through the weakness of the flesh, so that 
I groan within myself and long to be entirely de- 
livered from this bondage of death, yet I am 
filled with love, peace, joy and power through the 
earnest of the Spirit dwelling in me, and I serve 
Jesus patiently, waiting for the hope set before 
me, even the coming of our Saviour, when this 
corruptible, mortal body shall be changed into 
the likeness of the glorified body of Jesus, and I 
shall be with him and shall be like him. Oh, 
how this hope fills my being with love and joy 
unspeakable ! Will you come and accept this 
salvation? In the Saviour's name, who died to 
purchase it for you, we bid you come. Conn 
while it is called to-day! 



CHAPTER II. 

My Parting Message to the Unitarian 
School. 

During my third year at the Meadville Uni- 
tarian Theological School, after I became thor- 
oughly convinced that the Unitarian position was 
untenable, and I had found my way back to 
Christ, it so happened that it was my turn to 
read a paper and to preach to the school, as the 
members of the higher classes preached before 
the school in turn. In these parting messages 
I frankly and sincerely presented my change of 
viewpoint, and argued against the Unitarian posi- 
tion as strongly as I could at the time. The 
school is open, on equal terms, to anybody wish- 
ing to study for the ministry, no matter what 
their views, or what religious body they belong 
to. Everybody is supposed to be perfectly free 
to hold and express his honest religious opinions. 
In the spirit of this generosity, I patiently listened 
to all the school could offer me in presenting 
what it believed to be the truth, and gratefully 
accepted every help it could give me in my search 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 43 

for the truth. I felt I was acting in entire 
harmony with the spirit of the founders of the 
institution when I used the knowledge and cul- 
ture imparted to me in kindly contending for the 
truth as I saw it, even when it was against the 
truth as held by the teachers of the school. 

Most of my sermon on "The Proper Method 
of Inquiry in Religion" has been lost or mislaid. 
But I have the paper read before the school, and 
the last part of the sermon. I give these here 
because it shows how the matter looked to me at 
that time, and how I treated it in the presence of 
the keen, intellectual audience of students and 
professors. 

The professor of homiletics, who read and 
criticised all sermons before they were preached, 
rather took me to task for my bold attack upon 
Unitarianism, but he admitted to me that, al- 
though he had preached and taught it for more 
than a score of years, there were yearnings in 
his soul that it did not satisfy. The sermon was 
listened to with great respect and sympathy, es- 
pecially by the more conservative students. 
About ten years later I received a letter from a 
young Unitarian minister in Massachusetts 
who referred to the sermon, and said he had 
never forgotten it, but was often reminded in 
his experience of how true it was, especially 



44 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

in what I said about the coldness and fruit- 
lessness of Unitarianism. 

Although the matter in this paper and sermon 
is largely the same as that in the previous chapter, 
I present it because, as the line of thought is 
out of the ordinary and somewhat difficult to the 
general reader, its repetition in this conver- 
sational style will help to get a better grasp of 
the deadly delusions of rationalism. Truth usu- 
ally has to be repeated in various ways before it 
gets a thorough hold upon the average mind. 
Therefore "precept must be upon 'precept, pre- 
cept upon precept ; line upon line, line upon line ; 
here a little and there a little" (Isa. 28: 10). 

A Religions Discussion Between Mr. Liberal, 
Mr. Orthodox and Mr. Freethinker. 

Scene. — Ocean of Life. 

Steamboat. — Experience. 

[The three above-named persons had made 
each other's acquaintance, and had engaged in 
discussions with each other on several occasions. 
They now seat themselves in a group on deck 
and enter upon the following discussion.] 

Mr. Liberal — The great objection to your re- 
ligion, Mr. Orthodox, is that it violates reason 
and conscience. To be more specific, let us con- 
sider a few instances. There is your doctrine of 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 45 

eternal punishment, in which you ascribe fiendish 
qualities to our dear heavenly Father such as 
the most savage human being could not be 
capable of. Then, take your doctrine of the 
Trinity, around which most of your dogmas 
cluster, and we see at once that it violates the 
simplest postulates of reason. I know that you 
will answer that these are all mysteries which are 
to be accepted on faith. But it is perfectly clear 
that there is no mystery about it. It is as clear 
as daylight that three cannot be one. You talk 
about mysteries which we must accept by faith, 
but all such talk is nonsense and ignores our 
sacred reason. The idea of getting over all 
difficulties by declaring them mysteries, and ex- 
horting your opponents to leap over them by the 
exercise of faith, is truly, as some one has said, 
"a touchstone for whole classes of explanations 
based on no evidence." You orthodox people are 
the cause of all the infidelity that is afloat in the 
land. People come in contact with your ir- 
rational and ridiculous claims, and, taking them 
as religion itself, they throw overboard the whole 
business, the good with the bad. What we need 
is a pure and simple religion that will satisfy 
man's reason and conscience as well as his heart. 
And we do not have to go far for such a religion, 
for we find it in the liberal faith which it is my 



46 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

privilege to represent. Let us compare our 
grand, simple and rational beliefs with your ir- 
rational, absurd and mysterious products of the 
Dark Ages, and see what a contrast there is be- 
tween them. Instead of your "Son is God, 
Father is God, Holy Spirit is God; yet there are 
not three Gods, but only one," we have the simple 
faith in one heavenly Father — all-powerful, all- 
wise and all-good. No mystery about it. It 
would be absurd to suppose that such a God 
could punish his children to eternity, or that He 
would require the suffering of the innocent to 
enable him to forgive the guilty. Then, of 
course, we reject all the absurd dogmas cluster- 
ing around your conception of the Trinity. The 
simple belief in the Fatherhood of God and the 
brotherhood of man is enough for us. Instead 
of your endless punishment, we have the reason- 
able belief that the Father punishes simply to 
bring us good, so that our joy may be greater. 
This is all perfectly simple, and can be under- 
stood by the uneducated man as well as by the 
philosopher. 

Mr. Orthodox — It is an easy thing to make 
charges ; and, as they are usually made in sweep- 
ing terms, it frequently requires hours of time 
and much explanation to answer the charges 
made in a few minutes, even when the charges 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 47 

are false. I shall endeavor to defend myself, 
but must beg you to give me sufficient time to 
make myself understood. In the first place, I 
claim, as you say, that you cannot understand all 
the mysteries about religious doctrines. They 
must, to a large extent, be accepted by faith. 
And I claim that it is more reasonable to accept 
them by faith than to reject them on the ground 
that you cannot understand them. This may 
seem ridiculous to you, but wait until I explain 
myself further. Take eternal punishment. You 
say that man is a free agent, and that through his 
free agency he is able to bring evil and punish- 
ment upon himself. You say that God has so 
ordained because it is best for man that he 
should be left free, even though he becomes 
liable to suffer because of it, as it will be for his 
final good. In other words, you claim that God 
does punish his children for their own good. It 
seems perfectly just to you that God should pun- 
ish a person because he is a free agent, but 
when we say that man can bring eternal punish- 
ment upon himself through his free agency, 
then you think it ridiculous, although the prin- 
ciple is exactly the same and the only difference 
is that of degree. But I see that I must be more 
general in my statements or I will not get far. 
You bring a host of other charges against us, 



48 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

either directly or by implication. You say that 
yours is a pure and simple religion that can be 
understood by uneducated people as well as by 
philosophers. Here we get at the very heart of 
the difference between us. It is true that your 
doctrines are very simple, but that is their chief 
demerit. They are simple, but the facts that they 
attempt to deal with are very complex. To de- 
clare that religious problems are simple is to go 
counter to the expressed opinions of the great 
thinkers of all ages. Such questions as evil, 
good, life, immortality, free will, God, and a host 
of others, are decidedly complex. 

They are largely inscrutable and have always 
been considered so. And yet all the complex 
realities of life and death which have defied the 
theologians and philosophers of all ages, you 
now tell us are very simple, and you carry the 
simple solution around with you only too glad 
to give it free to everybody. Why is it that all 
of the thousands of worried and distressed souls 
don't come flocking to you? Why is it that the 
philosophers and thinkers don't come rushing in 
from all directions, to get from you the truths 
they have so long sought after? Why is it that 
the uneducated masses do not come to you and 
accept your simple doctrines which they can so 
easily understand? I know that you are ready 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 49 

with a charge of ignorance, prejudice, self-inter- 
est, etc., but I claim that as a rule your charges 
do not charge. You, believing in an all-wise, all- 
good and all-powerful God, who is Truth itself, 
must believe in the triumph of truth; and here I 
agree with you. I believe that just as soon as 
truth is brought in contact with error the latter 
will have to vanish just as sure as the darkness 
vanishes when a light is brought into a room. 
Error may apparently linger because of peculiar 
circumstances which we are ignorant of, but as 
soon as truth has a fair chance of coming directly 
in contact with error, the victory is won. I 
claim, therefore, that the reason that your ex- 
planations are not accepted, is because they do 
not explain. Your doctrines offer protection to 
a small part of the man, but leave all the rest 
exposed to the cold and inclement weather. 
The uneducated do not accept your doctrines 
because they belie their own experiences. 

Mr. Freethinker — I hope you will pardon me 
for interrupting you, Mr. Orthodox. You are 
getting too hot. I think it will be better for you 
to cool off before you continue, and in the mean- 
time I will have my say. That is the greatest 
objection I have to you religionists — you are all 
fanatics. You get an idea into your head, and 
then think that the continuance of the world de- 



50 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

pends upon you thrusting it into everybody's 
face. Of course you are willing to suffer for 
your doctrines, and even to die for them if need 
be, but that is the way with all fanatics. Your 
foolish notions give occasion for amusement 
to cool-headed free thinkers, who see per- 
fectly well that they are all the result of self- 
delusion. I believe in keeping perfectly cool ; in 
always keeping the head as high above the heart 
as it is in the body. I don't believe in attacking 
a man from behind while he is engaged by an- 
other in front, but, during the time Mr. Orthodox 
is cooling off, I wish to show you, Air. Liberal, 
wherein I differ from you. Your great appeal 
is to reason, and I agree with you entirely on 
that point ; but I don't arrive at your conclusions. 
You have been fixing your eyes on the mon- 
strous outrage of reason in your brother's posi- 
tion so steadfastly, and yours is so much more 
in accordance with reason, that it is not sur- 
prising that you should have failed to see the 
irrationality of your own position. Furthermore, 
you have had a great deal of inherited prejudice 
to overcome, and a man cannot be expected to 
get rid of all those at once, especially when they 
have reference to the heart or feelings. You 
say that your God. is all-good, all-wise and all- 
powerful. The inevitable, logical conclusion 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 51 

from that is that such a God would give his 
children an infinitely small amount of evil and an 
infinitely large amount of good. But such is not 
the case; therefore, to keep that jewel of ration- 
alism which is so dear to you, you must give up 
your belief in such a God. Just wait a minute! 
I know that you are ready to give a lot of quib- 
bling that will satisfy some people who follow 
their prejudices and inherited feelings, but I 
defy the whole world of logicians to show that 
such a conclusion is less logical than the claim 
that there can be three in one. You say that it is 
in the nature of things that God must give us 
evil that we may enjoy good the more afterwards. 
But if you clear yourself from all prejudice, you 
will see that this is the old method of the ostrich 
of putting its head under the sand and imagin- 
ing that its entire body is protected. Nay, even 
worse than that, you don't even protect your 
head. Any man that gives clear sweep to his 
reason will see that if God must comply with 
certain conditions, then he is not all-powerful 
If he is all-powerful, he can give us all good 
without any evil, and if he is all-good it would 
logically follow that he will do so. Then, 
again, while affirming that man is a free agent, 
you at the same time claim that every effect must 
have a cause, or that something cannot come out 



52 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

of nothing. Now, the reconciliation of these 
two facts has ever defied the reason of mankind. 
And those that have adopted the belief in free 
will have confessed that reason did not lead them 
to that conclusion, but experience. On the other 
hand, the logical conclusion is inevitable that man 
cannot be free. I know that people have en- 
deavored to satisfy themselves to the contrary, 
and I know that some have really succeeded in 
deceiving themselves so far as to believe that 
they could logically hold to it ; but I declare that 
they have never succeeded in convincing any un- 
prejudiced mind, and I defy any logician to 
prove that the conclusion of free will as con- 
sistent with eternal causation, is less absurd than 
that two and two make five. 

Again, you preach that what a man sows, that 
also shall he reap. If that is true, then no per- 
son can really give him anything; therefore phi- 
lanthropy is a delusion. Now, then, Mr. Liberal, 
you want to be reasonable and drop the false 
position to which your inherited prejudices have 
held you, and adopt my views, which are thor- 
oughly simple and entirely consistent and logical. 
Belief in God is the product of superstition, and 
belief in free will is a self-delusion. I know that 
you will appeal to intuition in this case, but that 
is only a scapegoat for deluded and illogical 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 53 

minds to hide behind. You see that my con- 
clusion is not only simple and logical, but it is 
really more beautiful than your complex affair, 
and you will see it as such after you succeed in 
overcoming your inherited prejudices. There is 
no God. The universe is governed by blind law ; 
at least, that is all we know about it. We are 
evolved from the lowest forms of organic life. 
What about conscience? Well, that is a matter 
of education. Of course we should follow it, 
because it is a safer guide than our present 
judgment, since it represents the judgment of all 
our ancestors. Utility is our only standard of 
right and wrong in morals, and we follow utility 
because we are not free and are therefore com- 
pelled to do so. 

Mr. Orthodox — If you are through, Mr. Free- 
thinker, I will now continue. But I must con- 
sider myself your opponent as well as Mr. Liber- 
al's. In the first place, I must admit that you 
are thoroughly consistent with yourself as far as 
you go. But, my dear fellow, where does your 
consistency lead you to? You claim to be a 
freethinker, and yet you conclude that you are 
an entire slave and even think as you do because 
you cannot help it. 

I stated at the beginning of my reply to Mr. 
Liberal that many religious facts must be ac- 



54 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

cepted without thoroughly understanding them, 
and claimed that it is reasonable to so accept 
them. I will now endeavor to explain myself 
more fully. It seems to me that if anything has 
been proven, it is that our logical reason is not 
always a safe guide. For example, we cannot 
conceive of an end to divisibility of space; and 
therefore we cannot conceive how we can reach 
a given point. Now, practice gives the lie to this 
conclusion, and if some rationalist should follow 
his reason here, he would conclude that he can 
never get a piece of food into his mouth ; or, in 
other words, the logical conclusion would lead to 
starvation. I know that some will deny this as 
a logical conclusion to get out of the difficulty. 
But I could never see it as otherwise than logical, 
and I have a goodly list of thinkers who have 
reached the same conclusion before me. Again, 
it is admitted by all thinkers of all ages that our 
reason tells us that there cannot be existence 
without beginning, or, on the other hand, there 
can be no beginning of existence without some- 
thing existing before to cause its existence. 

The conclusion is that inconceivability is net 
an infallible proof of the absence of a fact, and 
that we must follow our experience even if it 
conflicts with our reason. This is what we claim 
to do in religion. Whether experience is the 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 55 

sole source of knowledge is a question we need 
not discuss here. It is certainly the only safe 
method in most things. For example, I wish to 
know what will cure a certain disease. Suppose 
that I find a medicine that has cured every case 
in which it has been administered. Would it not 
be irrational for me to refuse to use that medicine 
because I cannot conceive how it effects the cure ? 
Of course it might be possible that the medicine 
did not effect the cure ; that it was the belief in 
its curative power that produced the effect. 
Cases have frequently occurred where a thing 
was for a long time believed to be the cause, 
while future investigation proved that it was 
some other attendant circumstance that was the 
real cause. But if our experience is that a given 
medicine cures a certain disease invariably, and 
that no other known medicine will cure it, we 
would be foolish not to use that medicine. The 
same is true in religion. If we wish to accomplish 
certain results and we have found a way in which 
those desirable results can be brought about, 
and know of no other way to bring them about; 
it would be irrational not to adopt that way, or 
follow out the requirements of that theory. I 
told you, Mr. Liberal, that your theory or doc- 
trine was too simple. This is still more true of 
our friend, Mr. Freethinker. You claim to hold 



56 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

very broad, liberal and enlightened views. But 
although they are broad, they are not deep 
enough. They are stretched out over the surface 
merely, and thus hide from your view the great 
ocean of reality below. Yes, you have an abund- 
ance of light, but not enough heat. In the polar 
regions they have six months of light in one 
stretch, but no one would think of starting a 
garden there, as there is not enough heat. To 
the cold reason of some bachelor it is perfectly 
clear and indisputable that the young lover is a 
deluded fool and should follow his reason by 
never marrying. But I fondly believe that young 
lover sees the true worth of one human soul, 
and gives us an idea of the worth we shall see 
in all souls when we shall cease to see through 
a glass darkly. As the bachelor does not touch 
the reality in his case, so I believe that our friend, 
Mr. Freethinker, does not touch the great ocean 
of reality in religion. We are convinced by ex- 
perience that man is free, and that nevertheless 
eternal causation does exist. We believe these to 
be two co-ordinate truths and we are willing to 
wait until we can solve the mystery ; but in the 
meantime we wish to make use of the practical 
belief in both truths. People are convinced that 
there is a God who deals out exact justice; yet 
they are also convinced from experience that 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 57 

there is a God who is love who forgives the 
penitent sinner. That one God can possess both 
of these qualities seems as impossible as that 
three Gods can be in one God. And yet people 
are convinced that no other theory will explain 
their complex experiences, and that living ac- 
cording to no other theory will enable them to 
get the desirable results that they know from ex- 
perience that they do get. They may be mis- 
taken ; but it will be time enough to consider 
that when some one has a theory that will ac- 
count better for all their various experiences. 
Well, you see my point and I shall apply it no 
further. You see it is simply the principle that 
the empirical school of philosophy claims to em- 
ploy, but which many of them employ only in 
the physical realm and fail to carry into the 
spiritual or religious realm. They must admit 
that religious convictions are and have been 
among the strongest, if not the strongest, motive 
powers in the world's history. And thus their 
philosophy of life leaves out the greatest pleas- 
ures and mightiest incentives to action found in 
life. 

But Mr. Liberal and his friends would tell us 
that this all refers to theology. That doctrines 
are of no account. That what we want is works. 
Exactly, but don't you see that if after the afore- 



58 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

said experience you should not form the theory 
that the given medicine cures the given disease 
and act in accordance with the theory, the re- 
sult would probably be death instead of health 
and life? The question is, is it true to experi- 
ence? Does it accomplish what it purposes to 
accomplish better than any other theory, and can 
that result be accomplished only by following the 
said theory? According to many authorities, 
most if not all of our physical actions are per- 
formed according to a theory based on induction 
as to facts in the physical world. Thus we ar- 
rive at the conclusion that food nourishes our 
body because it has always been found to do so. 
In the same way many people have, through ex- 
perience and facts, come to believe in God who 
guides them and nourishes them spiritually. 

If now we judge by fruits rather than by 
doctrines, or rather judge our doctrines by their 
fruits, I claim that the orthodox doctrine is supe- 
rior to yours, Mr. Liberal. In the first place, you 
admit that the lower ignorant classes you cannot 
reach, and you are greatly surprised that they do 
not eagerly accept your simple doctrines. It is 
not the whole, but the sick, that need a physician. 
A religion that cannot help those that need the 
greatest spiritual help cannot be the religion of 
Christ. But let us suppose that an intelligent 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 59 

foreigner who does not understand our language 
nor know our doctrines should attend our respec- 
tive churches and see the result produced — the - 
pleasure taken in coming and receiving our 
spiritual medicine. And making allowance for 
all other differences, should observe which 
helps most to make life worth living, and which 
makes the most and best changes in the char- 
acter of its adherents. He would have no 
trouble to discover that orthodoxy ministers 
more to the needy soul than your simple faith. 
You, Mr. Liberal, talk about making infidels 
of people and drawing them away from the 
church, but I believe it would have been 
fortunate for you if you had not mentioned this 
subject; because you, according to the confession, 
of your own men, have driven more people from 
the churches than any religious body having a 
similar numerical strength. You tell people to 
use their reason, and after you have drawn them 
out of the othodox churches by that bait, they 
see that they must go further than your position 
to satisfy what you call reason, and they find 
large numbers among you ready to lead them to 
that logical conclusion. It seems that the ad- 
vocates of your liberal faith have always be- 
lieved that they were on the verge of accom- 
plishing great victories by drawing the mul- 



CO TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

titudes to them; but as with the victim of tuber- 
culosis, .who imagines he is getting better all the 
time, it is always expectancy and never realiza- 
tion. If it is prejudice that prevents the spread of 
your belief, then it ought to grow most in New 
England, where it has largely worn away preju- 
dice. But the facts seem to be that there it is 
growing the least comparatively ; while out West, 
where it is a novelty and meeting with opposition, 
it is making the most progress. A person is 
almost tempted to conclude that if it were not for 
the opposition of some mistaken people, who do 
not realize your real error, your progress would 
come to an end at once. 

I believe, Mr. Liberal, that Mr. Freethinker 
has the best of you because he vanquished you 
according to your own method of inquiry. But 
you are more nearly right according to the true 
method of inquiry. You see it is the proper 
method of inquiry that I am contending for. A 
person with the wrong method of inquiry in his 
head will only be repulsed by poking dogmas at 
him and nothing can be done with him until he 
has discovered the fallacy by following his 
method to absurdity, its natural conclusion. 
After that he may be induced to follow the 
empirical method of inquiry with a demonstra- 
tion that experience and well-authenticated tes- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 61 

timony are to be followed rather than rational- 
ism. 

What follows is the last part of the sermon 
on "The Proper Method of Religious Inquiry." 
Text : "Prove all things ; hold fast that which is 
good." 

It is not only important that we should appeal 
to our own experience in trying to discover what 
is true in religion, but we should also take into 
consideration the experiences of others. If a 
man, who is partially color blind, should base a 
science of color en his own experience, it would 
necessarily be partial or incomplete. So if a 
class of men, with certain peculiar traits, should 
build up a system of theology on their religious 
experiences, it would necessarily be partial and 
not adequate for universal application. Suppose, 
for example, that a number of persons with large 
reasoning powers, cold temperaments, and very 
little religious feeling, should build up a religious 
system on their experiences. Is it not perfectly 
clear that it would-be partial and narrow? It 
would make no allowance at all for people of 
strong religious experiences. While it might be 
of some use to these few people, it would never 
help the great bulk of humanity who need the 
help of religion the most. To say that a religion 
is not for the common people is to admit that it 



62 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

is narrow and not true to universal human nature. 
Certainly it is not Christian, for the common 
people heard Jesus gladly; and they ever will 
hear gladly any one who preaches a religion that 
is true to their own religious experiences. 

In trying to discover what is true in religion, 
we should also carefully examine the religious 
experiences of all ages, as recorded in their re- 
ligious writings. I shall here quote from an 
authority on this point, because I think it of much 
value, and because it is not probable that the 
writer was influenced by prejudice and precon- 
ceived ideas. I shall quote from John Stuart 
Mill's "System of Logic," page 477: "There is a 
perpetual oscillation in spiritual truths, and in 
spiritual doctrines of any significance, even when 
not truths. Their meaning is almost always in 
a process either of being lost or of being recov- 
ered. Whoever has attended to the history of 
the more serious convictions of mankind — of the 
opinion by which the general conduct of their 
lives is. or as they conceive ought to be, more 
especially regulated — is aware that even when 
recognizing verbally the same doctrines, they 
attach to them at different periods a greater or 
less quantity, and even a different kind of mean- 
ing. The words in their original acceptation 
connoted, and the propositions expressed, a com- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 63 

plication of outward facts and inward feelings, 
to different portions of which the general mind is 
more particularly alive in different generations 
of mankind. To common minds, only that por- 
tion of the meaning is in each generation sug- 
gested, of which that generation possesses the 
counterpart in its habitual experience. But the 
words and propositions lie ready to suggest to 
any mind duly prepared to receive the remainder 
of the meaning. Such individual minds are 
almost always to be found ; and the lost meaning, 
revived by them, again by degrees works its way 
into the general mind. 

"The arrival of this salutary reaction may, 
however, be materially retarded by the shallow 
conceptions and incautious proceedings of mere 
logicians. . . . These logicians think more 
of having a clear, than of having a comprehen- 
sive, meaning; and although they perceive that 
every age is adding to the truth which it has re- 
ceived from its predecessors, they fail to see 
that a counter process of losing truths already 
possessed, is also constantly going on, and re- 
quiring the most sedulous attention to counter- 
act it." 

But, as a matter of fact, people have, as a 
rule, followed their experiences in everything, 
despite the sneers and ridicules of the would-be 



64 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

wise. People have planted their vegetables dur- 
ing the increase of the moon despite all ridicule 
and laughter. And in due time the wise men 
came to their position, declaring that the sunlight 
reflected by the moon helps the growth of vegeta- 
tion. People in all ages have believed in faith 
cure under one form or another to the utter 
amazement of the intelligent physicians who 
made fun of them and pitied their ignorance. 
But now, through the facts discovered by hypno- 
tism and other means, the scientists are coming 
around and admitting that the old women were 
right, that the people really did get help from 
faith cure. 

In religion, too, people have followed their 
experience, despite the sneers, ridicule and pro- 
tests of wise men. And, on the whole, I have no 
doubt that they are better off than if they had 
listened to the persons who showed them that 
their beliefs, from a rationalistic standpoint, a»re 
false ; and at the same time offered them beliefs 
that were about as ridiculous from a logical 
standpoint, and which left out all the power and 
good of their own system of belief. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Functions and Limitations of the' 
Mind. 

The objections made to faith are by no means an 
effect of knowledge, but proceed rather from ignorance 
of what knowledge is. — Bishop Berkley. 

No difficulty emerges in theology which has not 
previously emerged in philosophy. — Sir Wm. Hamilton. 

The human mind inevitably and by virtue of its 
essential constitution finds itself involved in self-con- 
tradictions whenever it ventures on certain courses o£ 
speculation. — Mansel. 

In the last two chapters I presented the rea~ 
sons that led me to infidelity and back to Christ,, 
as they appeared to me while in the thick of the* 
conflict and soon after. In this and following 
chapters I wish to present the matter in the 
light that has come to me on the subject up to 
the present date. 

As will be noticed in the previous chapters, 
the external causes that drove me to infidelity 
were the theology of creeds, sectarianism and the 
apparent difficulties in the Bible and in religion. 
But the real underlying cause was rationalism, or 



66 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

a failure to recognize the proper functions and 
limitations of the finite intellect. In later chap- 
ters, I shall show how I overcame the difficulties 
about creeds and speculative theology and how 
I solved the problem of sectarianism by turning 
to Christian union on the primitive gospel. In 
this chapter I wish to speak more definitely of 
rationalism or the subjective cause of my in- 
fidelity. For, after all, the whole matter resolves 
itself into a question of psychology, or science of 
the mind. What is the profit of reading numer- 
ous books on the subject, pro and con, so long 
as we are reading the books through colored 
glasses that deceive our vision and lead us to 
apply false tests as to what the truth in the 
matter is? 

There must be some matters that require our 
prayerful and serious consideration, when we 
observe how the most talented, scholarly, devout 
and honest of all ages have been divided into 
warring camps on questions of religion, politics, 
medicine and science. Certainly truth is not 
divided ; and there must be some mysterious, de- 
ceptive mental pitfalls that have caused this 
Babel of confusion. When we count the cost of 
this warring conflict of the choicest spirits of 
the earth in waste, failure, suffering, bloodshed 
and death, and contemplate the gain in prosperity, 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 67 

progress, happiness and conquest over ignorance 
and evil, that would have resulted had all the 
good been enabled to see alike, and thus unite on 
the truth, we cannot fail to be impressed with 
the fact that this is one of the greatest, if not the 
greatest, theme that has ever engaged the atten- 
tion of mortal man. Well may we ask with 
Pilate, "What is truth?" Or perhaps the more 
important question, "How can we discover what 
is truth?" What is there in the nature of the 
mind that side-tracks the wisest and best in their 
effort to know the truth? Why was Paul, the 
conscientious, intellectual giant, so deceived that 
he ''verily thought he was doing God service" 
while destroying the best and holiest thing that 
had ever come to earth? Why did Cotton 
Mather and other saintly, scholarly Christians 
martyr innocent saints as witches? Why did 
devout patriots of the North and South slaughter 
each other in cold blood? Why were the scien- 
tific theses written at Harvard during forty 
years, all found out of date by Edward Everett 
Hale? Why are the intelligent and consecrated 
hosts of Christ wasting three-fourths of their 
men and money through sectarian divisions ? 
Why are the intelligent, patriotic citizens of 
America divided into two camps on free silver 
and other issues when the truth and their interest 



68 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

are one, and by a united effort they could carry 
every election for truth and righteousness? 
Common sense asks, Why? The interests of 
humanity ask, Why? Love and compassion ask, 
Why? I believe we must find the answer chiefly 
in the failure to understand clearly the nature 
and functions of the mind. 

The Nature of Conscience. 

Turn, for example, to conscience. What is 
its nature? Is it a safe guide? Does it always 
tell us what is right? Why has conscience 
fought on both sides of every great historical 
conflict? Surely we should stay this awful, 
pitiable and destructive conflict of the conscien- 
tious ; at least, long enough to examine most 
earnestly into the cause of this strange and 
disastrous puzzle. If conscience is not a safe 
guide, then woe betide us ; for it is the only moral 
guide we have, or, at least, the only avenue 
through which human and divine truth can guide 
us. For it is the moral nature itself. 

The eye without light cannot see, but if we 
are lost in a forest, the eye becomes helpless as 
a guide, even if there is light. Yet the eye is a 
safe guide, and in bodily movements it is essen- 
tially the only guide we have. We thus learn that 
to exercise their function the eyes must have 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 69 

light and knowledge of the localities in which 
they are to act as a guide. What the eyes are in 
guiding our bodily movements, that the con- 
science is in guiding our moral actions. But as 
the eyes without light and knowledge are helpless 
as a guide, so conscience without love and truth 
is a blind monster. There is conscience and 
conscience. And as long as w r e use the term am- 
biguously and fail to discriminate between con- 
science proper and the term as used in the looser, 
larger sense, we will have nothing but confusion. 
Conscience proper is simply the impulse of the 
soul that urges us to do right as we see the right. 
We do not deny that it also embodies the basic 
element in the soul that enables us to discover 
what is right; but our conviction as to what is 
right is dependent upon knowledge acquired 
through other faculties. When we speak of 
conscience in the loose and general sense, we 
refer to both of these elements. In this sense 
conscience is the product of a number of fac- 
ulties working together. Thus when we talk 
about following conscience, we mean following 
the voice of our moral nature, or the convictions 
of the highest and best aspirations in our soul. 
Conscience should always be followed as a guide 
in both its proper and larger sense ; but as an 
impulse to do what we believe to be right, it is 



70 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

infallible, while as a guide to knowledge of what 
is right, it is fallible and liable to lead us into 
all kinds of folly and error. 

While, therefore, we should always follow 
our conscience, or our highest conviction of what 
is right, we should assiduously probe our con- 
science day by day to seek for errors in the 
part that is dependent upon information. In 
other words, a truly conscientious person not 
only scrupulously does what he believes to be 
right ; but he also constantly strives to get all 
the truth, that his conscience may be enlightened 
more and more. To follow our conscience, there- 
fore, in searching for and obeying the truth, is 
our highest duty to God, and it is the sine qua 
non of acceptance with him. This is the "love 
of the truth" (2 Thess. 2: 10), "the good and 
honest heart" (Luke 8: 15), through which the 
gospel becomes fruitful. To refuse to follow our 
conscience, or highest light of duty, as revealed 
in the Bible or from any other source, is trea- 
son toward God in whose image we were morally 
created; and such persons forfeit heaven, no 
matter how faultless their outward acts may be. 
With God it is a matter of the inner motive, as 
the entire Bible reveals. The man who lives 
a respectable life outwardly, but fails to meet 
his inner moral obligations, is not a good moral 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 71 

man, but a hypocrite. Therefore no man can 
ever be saved without morality in the full and 
true sense of the word. Conscience, then, en- 
lightened by truth, is the voice of God to the soul. 
The Proverb says, "The spirit of man is the 
lamp of the Lord, searching all the inward parts" 
(Prov. 20:27), while in Rom. 2:14-16 we 
read: "For when Gentiles that have not the law 
do by nature the things of the law, these, not 
having the law, are the law unto themselves ; in 
that they show the work of the law written in 
their hearts, their conscience bearing witness 
therewith, and their thoughts one with another 
accusing or else excusing them ; in the day when 
God shall judge the secrets of men, according 
to my gospel, by Jesus Christ." 

God wants us to follow our present convic- 
tion of duty until by investigation we discover 
a better one. Thus God guides the individual 
in his conduct through his conscience enlightened 
by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 9:1). But this guid- 
ance is only for the individual. It has a fallible 
element in it that needs to be improved by con- 
stant and vigilant readjustment as the individual 
increases his knowledge and sharpens his con- 
science by exercise (Rom. 12:2). Alas! how 
much mischief has come from neglect of these 
facts. How many have tried to thrust the lead- 



72 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

ings of their conscience on others, in and out of 
creeds. Again, how many good people have 
become self-righteous and despised those who 
differed from them because they mistook mat- 
ters of opinion and expediency as matters of con- 
science, through failing to recognize the fallible, 
variable element in their conscience. How fool- 
ish we act if we do not keep in mind these 
distinctions. The infidel who claimed that he 
was unhappy because he knew too much, and 
that Christians are happy because they are de- 
luded, and then promulgated his misery-produc- 
ing doctrine for conscience' sake, is an illustra- 
tion of the absurdity into which a sensitive but 
perverted conscience will lead a person. But 
yesterday I met a very conscientious young man 
who left the ministry because he could not agree, 
with members of the church he was serving, on 
matters of expediency. On my table lies a letter 
recently received from a young man who grad- 
uated for the ministry last spring, but through 
doubts, similar to those I formerly experienced, 
left the ministry for conscience' sake. This un- 
happiness of doubters and this testimony of their 
consciences, even while they hold opinions that 
logically rob conscience of any authority, should 
cause every one to think ; and is strong evidence 
that skepticism is unnatural and fundamentally 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 73 

wrong. I followed rationalism into infidelity 
for conscience' sake. I gave up belief in the 
miraculous and supernatural in the Bible for 
conscience' sake. But after the rationalists had 
driven me to this bitter end, through my sensi- 
tive conscience, I was gravely informed that con- 
science was a mere creature of education and 
therefore should only be followed conditionally. 

I discovered sufficient truth in this claim to 
open my eyes to the fact that I had been deceived 
and had followed the fallible part of my con- 
science, which is a creature of education, as 
though it were infallible and the voice of God. 

It will be noticed that eternal life depends- 
on the infallible element of conscience, while 
stupendous, yet only mundane, interests depend 
upon its fallible element. This is a mystery that 
perplexes a great many people. Is ignorance an 
excuse? Does it not matter what you believe, 
just so you are honest? The highest and best 
thing anybody can ever do, is to follow his con- 
science, or the voice of his highest moral and 
spiritual nature. This the teaching of Scripture 
from Genesis to Revelation. To teach that God 
would damn a soul for doing this is destructive 
of all moral distinctions, and is as abominable 
as the old doctrine that God elects certain people 
and damns others irrespective of their thoughts 



74 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

and conduct. Ignorance is an excuse if it is inno- 
cent ignorance. What about those who are will- 
fully ignorant? or those who have a seared 
conscience? They are not following their con- 
science at all. Conscience insists that we make 
every possible effort to get the truth. By a 
seared conscience we mean a person who does 
not follow his conscience at all, and he knows it. 

We know that ignorant innocence is an 
excuse in the sight of God, but we do not know 
who is innocently ignorant. The former fact is 
revealed to us in the Bible, but the latter is 
known only to God. Therefore in these matters 
we should "judge nothing before the time, until 
the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden 
things of darkness, and make manifest the coun- 
sels of the heart ; and then shall each man have 
his praise from God" ( I Cor. 4:5). 

Nothing has ever been revealed more clearly 
in the Bible than that innocent ignorance is an 
excuse in the sight of God. The cities of refuge 
and the entire ceremonial law were based upon 
this fact. Christ said, "Father, forgive them ; 
for they know not what they do" (Luke 23 : 34). 
James says, "To him that knoweth to do good, 
and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (Jas. 4: 17). 
In Acts 17: 30 we read. "The times of ignorance 
therefore God overlooked." In the second chap- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 75 

ter of Romans Paul makes it clear that each 
person shall be judged by the light that comes 
to him, whether in or out of the law or of the 
gospel. Heathen people, who never heard the 
gospel, will not be condemned for rejecting the 
gospel, but for rejecting the light that came 
to them through their conscience and through 
other sources. "For this is the condemnation, 
that light is come into the world, and men loved 
darkness rather than light, because their deeds 
were evil" (John 3: 19). But we will be con- 
demned if we do not do all in our power to bring 
the gospel to the heathen. 

We need not worry about the pious, conscien- 
tious peoples scattered among the sectarian 
churches ; but we need to worry lest we do not 
do all in our power to make it impossible for 
them to remain pious and conscientious while 
upholding sectarianism. It is our duty to help 
them to understand the Word ; and if, after 
they understand it, they refuse to obey it, they 
are under condemnation. But we cannot and 
dare not decide whether they understand it or 
not. It is ours to preach the Word, and it 
will judge them in that Great Day. 

The ground or mainspring of conscience is 
love — love of the well-being or welfare of all sen- 
tient beings, or of all beings capable of enjoying 



76 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

happiness. Our conscience goads us to do what 
love demands as our duty. He who, through 
want of discrimination, ignores the love element 
in conscience, becomes a cruel misanthrope, and 
is misguided by a perverted conscience. May 
the Lord help us to clear up our minds on this 
subject of conscience so that this divine light 
may lead us onward and upward towards per- 
fection in holiness; and that this eye of the 
moral nature may not be deprived of love and 
knowledge and thus flounder around like a blind 
giant spreading misery and suffering everywhere. 

The Feelings or Emotions. 

Psychology divides the mind into intellect, 
sensibilities and will. This is doubtless a valuable 
classification in a general way. But the classi- 
fication is very general and indefinite. Indeed, 
school psychology has confined itself almost en- 
tirely to a consideration of the general operations 
of the mind and has given us very little light on 
the classification of the mental faculties. The 
limited attempts at classification have varied con- 
siderably according to the subjective make-up of 
the author, as the classifications were based on 
introspection. 

While the deductive, axiomatic or intuitive, 
scholastic or introspective methods of inquiry 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 77 

prevailed in the intellectual world, systems of 
philosophy, psychology and theology were built 
up according to the peculiar subjective nature of 
their author, and held the field until some other 
strong mind projected its views of the subject 
and thus rivaled or supplanted the other systems. 
It was the modern inductive or empirical method 
of investigation, introduced by Bacon, Locke, 
Mill and others, that has put knowledge on a 
real scientific basis and has led to the marvelous 
scientific and material progress of recent times. 
I believe the time is not far distant when the old 
medieval, introspective psychology of the schools 
will be displaced by a more scientific system. 
All that is of value in the old system will be re- 
tained, but the most valuable psychological 
knowledge will come from the new system. 
That this need is generally recognized by those 
who have given the matter most attention, is 
evidenced by the words of that prince of modern 
psychologists, Professor James, when he says, 
"At present psychology is in the condition of 
physics before Galileo and the laws of motion 
or of chemistry before Lavoisier." I believe that 
phrenology has blazed the way for this new 
psychology. It was violently attacked by the old- 
school psychologists because it taught that the 
brain is the instrument of the mind, that the 



78 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

mind has a plurality of faculties and that various 
brain functions can be localized. Every one con- 
versant with the present literature on physiology 
and psychology will see that phrenologists have 
conquered, and that their basic principles are 
now accepted by all. It is now simply a matter of 
the application of these principles by further in- 
vestigation. The psychologists have made some 
progress in brain localization through various 
mechanical and more or less abnormal methods of 
investigation. When they come to a more sensi- 
ble and natural method of inquiry by observing 
the concomitance between various brain develop- 
ments and various mental traits, I feel sure that 
they will have to admit that the phrenologists are 
essentially right in their brain localizations, just 
as they have already admitted that they are right 
in their basic principles. 

That the tide is already turning is manifest 
from the following quotations. 

Alfred Russell Wallace, one of the greatest 
of scientists, in his book, "The Wonderful Cen- 
tury," says: "I begin with the subject of phre- 
nology, a science of whose substantial truth and 
vast importance I have no more doubt than I 
have of the value and importance of any of the 
great intellectual advances already recorded. 

"In the coming century, phrenology will as- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 79 

suredly attain general acceptance. It will prove 
itself to be the true science of mind. Its prac- 
tical use in education, in self-discipline, in the re- 
formatory treatment of criminals, and in the 
remedial treatment of the insane, will give it one 
of the highest places in the hierarchy of sciences ; 
and its persistent neglect and obloquy during 
the last sixty years, will be referred to as an ex- 
ample of the almost incredible narrowness and 
prejudice which prevailed among men of science 
at the very time they were making such splendid 
advances in other fields of thought and action." 
Benard Hollander, M.D., F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., 
in his late book on "Functions of the Brain," 
says : "What Gall knew at the close of the 
eighteenth century is only just dawning upon 
the scientists of the present day. The history 
of Gall and his doctrine is given in these pages, 
and will be quite a revelation to the reader. No 
subject has ever been so thoroughly misrepre- 
sented, even by learned men of acknowledged 
authority." In his "Scientific Phrenology," Dr. 
Hollander says : "In this volume I have laid 
stress on the strictly phrenological method of ob- 
serving special parts of the brain, distinct lobes 
and convolutions, and comparing their size to de- 
velopment of the rest of the brain — which, if 
applied in conjunction with the study of the 



80 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

mental characteristics of our fellow-beings, would 
enable us to make observations by the million. 
This method, which was considered unscientific, 
and hence shunned, for a long time, has found 
favor with scientists, since the author's first 
papers on scientific phrenology were published 
in 1886, and was for the first time advocated 
publicly last year by Dr. Cunningham, professor 
of anatomy in Dublin University, in his presi- 
dential address to the Anthropological Section 
of the British Association at their meeting in 
Glasgow. Dr. Cunningham was upheld by Sir 
Wm. Turner, professor of anatomy at Edin- 
burgh University and president of the General 
Medical Council, who, like Sir Sam. Wilks, the 
ex-president of the College of Physicians, and 
the late Sir James Paget, besides others with 
whom I have not come in contact, have always 
kept an open mind on this subject. In Ger- 
many, Dr. Landois, professor of physiology at 
Grief swalt, has been long urging a reinvestiga- 
tion of Gall's doctrines; Dr. R. Sommer, pro- 
fessor of clinical psychiatry at Griessen, recom- 
mends it, not dogmatically, but as a working 
hypothesis ; and the Swiss professor of physiol- 
ogy, Dr. Von Bunge, in his text-book just pub- 
lished, acts as pioneer in devoting two. chapters 
to a rehabilitation of Gall ; Dr. Mobius, of 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 81 

Leipsic, has published several books on the same 
subject, and, quite lately, the renowned professor 
of psychiatry in the University of Vienna, Dr. 
R. Yon Krafft-Ebing, has joined in the defense 
of this great discovery." 

Beecher said that if he were in the pulpit 
without his knowledge of phrenology, he would 
feel like a mariner at sea without a compass ; and 
he declared: "All my life long I have been in 
the habit of using phrenology as that which 
solves the practical phenomena of life. I regard 
it far more useful, practical and sensible than 
any other system of mental philosophy which 
has yet been evolved." 

Horace Mann said: "I declare myself a hun- 
dred times more indebted to phrenology than to 
all the metaphysical works that I ever read. . . . 
I look upon phrenology as the guide to philos- 
ophy and the handmaid of Christianity. Who- 
ever disseminates true phrenology is a public 
benefactor." 

Joseph Cook declared: "Choosing a foreman 
or clerk, guiding the education of children, set- 
tling my judgment of men in public or private 
life, estimating a wife or husband, and their 
fitness for each other, or endeavoring to under- 
stand myself and to select the right occupation, 
there is no advice of which I so often feel the 



82 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

need as that of a thoroughly able, scientific, ex- 
perienced and Christian phrenologist." 

Oliver Wendell Holmes changed his views on 
phrenology in his maturer years and said: "We 
owe phrenology a great debt. It has melted the 
world's conscience in its crucible and cast it in 
a new mould, with features less like those of 
Moloch and more like those of humanity." 

Andrew Carnegie said : "Not to know phre- 
nology is sure to keep you standing on the 
'Bridge of Sighs' all your life." 

I think the superiority of the phrenological 
classification of the mental powers to that of 
other systems of psychology will be apparent 
from the following: 

Phrenological Analysis of Mental Faculties. 

I. Domestic Propensities (Family Affections). 

1. Amativeness — Love between the sexes. 

2. Conjugality — Matrimony, love of one, 

3. Parental Love — Regard for offspring, 

pets, etc. 

4. Friendship, sociability. 

5. Inhabitiveness — Love of home. 

6. Continuity — One thing at a time. 

II. Selfish Propensities (Lookout for "No. 1"). 
1. Vitativeness- — Love of life. 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 83 

2. Combativeness — Resistance, defense. 

3. Destructiveness — Executiveness, force. 

4. Alimentiveness — Appetite, hunger. 

5. Acquisitiveness — Accumulation. 

6. Secretiveness — Policy, management. 

7. Bibativeness — Fondness for liquids. 

III. Selfish Sentiments (Promote Self-interests). 

1. Cautiousness — Prudence, provision. 

2. Approbativeness — Ambition, display. 

3. Self-esteem — Self-respect, dignity. 

4. Firmness — Decision, perseverance. 

IV. Moral Sentiments (Religion and Morality). 

1. Conscientiousness — Justice, equity. 

2. Hope — Expectation, enterprise. 

3. Spirituality — -Intuition, faith, credulity. 

4. Veneration — Devotion, respect. 

5. Benevolence — Kindness, goodness. 

V. Semi-intellectual Sentiments (Self -perfecting 

Group). 

1. Constructiveness — Mechanical ingenuity. 

2. Ideality — Refinement, taste, purity. 

3. Sublimity — Love of grandeur, infinitude. 

4. Imitation — Copying, patterning. 

5. Mirthfulness — Jocoseness, wit, fun. 

6. Human Nature — Perception of motives. 

7. Agreeableness — Pleasantness, suavity. 



84 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

VI. Intellectual Faculties. 

1. Perceptive Faculties (Perceive physical 

qualities). 
( i ) Individuality — Observation, desire to 
see. 

(2) Form — Recollection of shape. 

(3) Size — Measuring by the eye. 

(4) Weight — Balancing, climbing. 

(5) Color — Judgment of colors. 

(6) Order — Method, system, arrange- 
ment. 

(7) Calculation — Mental arithmetic. 

(8) Locality — Recollection of places. 

2. Semi-perceptive or Literary Faculties. 

(1) Eventuality — Memory of facts. 

(2) Time — Cognizance of duration. 

(3) Tune — Sense of harmony and mel- 
ody. 

(4) Language — Expression of ideas. 

3. Reasoning or Reflective Faculties. 

(1) Causality — Applying causes to ef- 
fects. 

(2) Comparison — Inductive reasoning. 

Note. — These definitions are taken from 
"The Self-instructor," Fowler & Wells Co., New 
York, the leading phrenological publishing- 
house. 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 85 

I have received more help for my practical 
work in the ministry from phrenology than from 
any other half-dozen studies, except the Bible. 
Even if its physical basis could not be substan- 
tiated, its analysis of the mental faculties is far 
better and more helpful than that of any other 
system of psychology. While it places the in- 
tellectual, moral and spiritual faculties at the 
top as supreme, it is just as vitally interested in 
the care of the body, education, discipline, self- 
culture, choice of occupation, matrimonial adap- 
tation, heredity and all the practical affairs of 
life. How could a person be more healthy, 
happy and successful than by normally and har- 
moniously developing all his faculties as phre- 
nology points them out to him ? 

Phrenology teaches that the mind has certain 
elementary, selective instincts, or propensities 
and sentiments, that attract to them the mental 
food germane to their function just as the 
various cells of the body select from the blood 
the elements required. I say that these instincts 
have selective power, but they are subject to 
perversion, and dependent upon the guidance of 
judgment and knowledge, just as conscience 
does. Take, for example, the appetite for different 
kinds of food, the faculty of music, judgment 
of color, beauty, etc.; and you will see at once 



86 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

that they have selective power, but that this 
power can become perverted, and thus lead to 
great difference of opinion. Notice that while 
these faculties are not infallible guides, and 
need the earnest help of other faculties to be the 
most useful to us, no one can deny that they 
point toward truth on these subjects, and are 
our proper and only guides along these lines. 

Some of the faculties of the mind inspire the 
specialized affections ; as, love for wife, children, 
home, friends, etc., which are at the very founda- 
tion of our Christian civilization. These special 
affections have their proper claims upon us, and 
in so far as they are neglected we become un- 
happy ; but when they exert more than their 
proper influence, they warp our judgment and 
more or less unbalance our character. How 
many people are blinded to truth because of 
selfish love for their children, or their home, or 
their party, or their church. 

There are some things that the feelings can- 
not do. For example, they cannot give us infor- 
mation about facts outside of the mind. The 
faculty of love cannot reveal to a young man the 
existence of a young lady : but when he gets ac- 
quainted with her through what he sees and 
hears, he can feel that he loves her; and after 
learning that she is willing to become his, he can 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 87 

and will feel happy because of the fact. The 
world is full of folly, division and fanaticism 
because people look to their feelings or impres- 
sions for things that they cannot furnish. Thus 
people have claimed immediate knowledge of 
God, of pardon, of the will of God, of their per- 
fection and security, etc., through their feelings. 
It is true that God created all nations "that they 
should seek God, if haply they might feel [Pro- 
fessor Green says the Greek word here means 
'to feel or grope for or after, as persons in the 
dark'] after him and find him" (Acts 17:27). 
When we see the condition of the heathen nations 
to whom the revelation of the Bible has not come, 
we must admit that they are indeed "groping or 
feeling in the dark after God," as their super- 
stitions and idolatries abundantly testify. 

Of course people feel good whenever they 
follow their conscience, or best conviction of 
duty; but the feeling of conscience cannot tell 
them of the gospel of Christ, and of the pardon 
it makes possible to them. Just as people who 
trust their "reason," or their "think so's," as the 
voice of God, naturally reject the Bible as a reve- 
lation from God, so those that trust their "feel 
so's" will naturally have no use for the Bible in 
conversion, sanctification or as an evidence of 
pardon. It is easy to become so self-confident 



88 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

about our feelings, or impressions, as to believe 
them to be axiomatic truths or direct revelations 
from God. This has been one of the most fruit- 
ful sources of strife and divisions in religion, 
and the handicap that for centuries held the 
world in medieval darkness. The false prophets 
of the Old Testament were very religious men. 
That is, they had strong hereditary religious fac- 
ulties. But these strong religious feelings, per- 
verted, led them to trusting the imaginations and 
impressions of their hearts as the will of God in- 
stead of following his will as revealed in the 
Bible (Jer. 23: 16, 17, 28, 30-32). 

Conscience is a safe guide ; but it is not an 
infallible guide, and it is our duty to perfect it 
day by day by seeking more truth and obeying it. 
Our instincts or feelings are safe guides within 
certain limitations : but they are not perfect 
guides, and it is our duty to strengthen, guide 
and restrain them with the knowledge and help 
that other faculties can supply. 

The Intellect. 

Let us now see what light we can get con- 
cerning the intellect. What are its functions and 
limitations? Is it safe as a guide? According 
to the phrenological classification, the intellectual 
faculties are divided into three classes ; viz. : the 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 89 

perceptive, literary and reasoning faculties. The 
perceptive faculties bring us into relationship 
with the external world, and through them we 
learn about the color, size, form, weight, etc., of 
material objects. If the phrenologists are right, 
then neither those who claim that the mind is 
like a blank sheet and knows nothing but what it 
gets from without, nor those who ascribe almost 
everything to innate, intuitive ideas, are wholly 
correct. As usual, the truth lies midway between 
the two extremes. The mind has innate, intuitive 
powers of perception, selection and discrimina- 
tion without which material objects, events and 
thoughts could make no more impression upon 
us than upon a fence-rail. But these innate 
powers are subject to improvement by heredity 
and culture and their dictates must be carefully 
watched and corrected by other faculties, as they 
are fallible and most of them subject to perver- 
sion and delusion. As the conscience and senti- 
ments, although not infallible, are our only 
guides in their sphere ; so our perceptive facul- 
ties are good and safe, but not perfect, guides. 
These perceptive faculties, in a measure, help 
and correct each other's impressions ; and 
through optical illusions, expectant attention, 
dreams, etc., we learn that their dictates must 
be carefully watched and verified. The latest 



90 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

voice of science is that all the sensations pro- 
duced by physical stimulants can also be pro- 
duced by the imagination ; so that people can feel 
cold, heat, pain, etc., when there is no physical 
cause for them. These things should not make 
us skeptical about our perceptive powers, but 
rather cautiously critical. 

If we turn to the reasoning faculties we find 
that they have been the cause of most contention 
and misunderstanding. On the one hand have 
been the extreme intuitionalists, or deductive the- 
orizers, who for centuries limited philosophical 
thought almost entirely to fruitless, abstract, de- 
ductive reasoning based upon premises that had 
no real foundation in facts. As John Stuart 
Mill pointed out, the mind may become so accus- 
tomed to conceiving of a thing as true that it 
seems like an axiomatic truth, although facts 
discovered later may show that it was an error. 
Thus the time was before modern discoveries, 
when people could not conceive of persons living 
under the earth walking with their heads down, 
or of objects attracted towards each other with- 
out some material object to connect them and 
thus draw them together. 

Other extremists have looked upon the mind 
as a blank sheet, or have become so skeptical of 
its intuitive impressions that they mistrust its 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 91 

guidance almost entirely, especially in religious- 
matters ; although, strange to say, they inconsist- 
ently seem to trust it all the more in material 
things. 

It cannot be denied that our "think so's," "feel 
so's," impressions, prejudices and inherited or 
preconceived ideas may seem as infallible to us 
as any so-called axiomatic or intuitive truths. 
This delusion of the mind has led to multitudes 
of errors and has held people in bondage to igno- 
rance and superstition in all centuries and in all 
countries. It has ever been the greatest hin- 
drance to progress. Closely allied to this and 
reinforcing it is the inertia of the mind, through 
which it naturally continues to run in the grooves 
in which it has been running. After awhile the 
grooves or ruts become so deep and smooth that 
it seems next to impossible to turn out of them 
without breaking something or upsetting the 
mental team. We see on every hand how hard it 
is to get away from the ideas we have inherited 
or in which we have lived a long time. When 
truth, like a vine-dresser, has attempted to trim 
off these unnecessary and injurious accretions, it 
has always raised the hue and cry that the 
foundations of truth were being destroyed. 

When Mansel, in his Bampton lectures of 
1858, showed that the finite intellect is inade- 

s 



S2 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

quate and helpless in trying to grasp the truth 
where infinity of any kind is involved, the cry 
was raised that he robbed reason of its glory and 
authority, tore away the very foundation of re- 
ligion and of all truth, and opened the way to 
all kinds of skepticism. But the very purpose 
of that marvelous piece of reasoning was to lead 
people to the truth as revealed in the Bible and 
to keep them from setting it aside or robbing it 
of its power because it transcends their finite in- 
tellects. Good but misled people, in all ages, 
have set aside or limited God's Word by their 
"think so's" or "feel so's," which were mistak- 
ingly taken as an infallible test of truth. Just 
as man by feeling knew not God (Acts 17:27), 
so man by wisdom knew not God ; and it pleased 
God by the foolishness of a revealed gospel to 
save such as accept it by faith (1 Cor. 1:21). 
President Schurman voices the highest conclusion 
of philosophy when he says that the farthest 
reason can go is to assert that God is necessary 
as a working theory. To this we can add con- 
ceptions of God revealed in our moral nature 
(Rom. 1: 19, 20). But what a lifeless skeleton 
this is compared to the revelation of God in Jesus 
Christ our Saviour. 

Bacon, Locke, Mill and others have joined in 
the battle to destroy a false trust in subjective 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 93 

impressions without subjecting them to a fearless 
test of observed facts as revealed in experience, 
observation and testimony. This is not intel- 
lectual skepticism that destroys all the authority 
of reason and leaves us to imbecility. Just as 
the conscience, sentiments and perceptive fac- 
ulties are our safe, proper and necessary guides, 
although not infallible, so our logical reason is 
our safe and necessary guide to truth, although 
helpless to grasp and understand infinite truths 
and likely to deceive us unless we carefully test 
its impressions or conceptions by experience and 
facts. Reason is the eye of the intellect as con- 
science is of the moral nature. But as the eye is 
helpless as a guide without light, and the con- 
science without love, so reason is helpless and 
worthless as a guide without facts. There is no 
conflict between theory and practise if the theory 
takes into consideration all the facts. For ex- 
ample, if from the fact that a horse can trot 
a mile in three minutes on the race-track, one 
should conclude that he can trot from one city 
to another five miles away in fifteen minutes, 
the theory would be false, because it did 
not take into consideration the condition of the 
road and the fact that a horse cannot keep up 
the same speed for a long distance. Whatever 
impressions or conceptions of the mind may be 



94 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

self-evident or axiomatic truths, it is certain that 
our highest conception of truth must be taken as 
our only and necessary guide ; but, knowing the 
variable part of our judgment, and knowing how 
very likely we are to be mistaken in our "think 
so's" and "feel so's," we should ever be on the 
alert to verify or rectify our convictions by the 
help of experience and facts. The question as 
to how much of our intellectual power is in- 
tuitive and innate, or how much is acquired and 
dependent upon truth learned by induction, is not 
so important after all. For the powers of the 
mind which enable it to learn truths through in- 
duction from facts observed and experienced 
come from God just as much as the powers that 
enable us to see truth intuitively. 

If we take the consensus of all the mental 
faculties, we have the wonderful human intelli- 
gence created but little lower than the angels 
and crowned with glory and honor (Ps. 8:5). 
Created in the very image of God himself (Gen. 
1 : 27), man is an intelligence with the threefold 
guidance of intellect, conscience and sentiments 
which give him abundant light for his daily walk 
in the fear of the Lord. But even our so-called 
"consciousness," including all these powers, is 
fallible and subject to deception, perversion and 
delusion and therefore it needs the help of the 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 95 

truth revealed in the Bible arid the help of all 
the truth we can learn from life and science to 
enable us to fulfill our highest destiny and to 
continue to progress Godward and heaven- 
ward. 

Let us remember that love is the arch that 
unites and supports all the mental faculties and 
all the operations of the mind. On it hang all 
the law and prophets, and the gospel as well. Let 
us rejoice and glory in our wonderful heritage 
of intelligence, but, knowing the limitations of 
our finite minds, let us walk humbly before God 
and our fellow-men. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Looking Through Colored Glasses. 

Differences of Opinion; the Cause and Cure. 

What Should Be Our Attitude Toward 

Those IV ho Differ from Usf 

The above headings will give you some idea 
of the matter I wish to bring before you in this 
chapter. From the previous chapters you will 
learn that it was through years of bitter experi- 
ence that I was prepared to write this chapter. 
I write it in love, and humility and pray that it 
may be blessed in warning many of pitfalls in 
searching for truth and may lead to more charity 
in dealing with those who differ from us. 

I have spoken of the sad and lamentable dif- 
ferences of opinion among the best people on 
earth during all times and on all subjects. What 
was said in the previous chapter about the fal- 
lible, variable voices of the different parts of the 
mind blazes the way for a more detailed study of 
these factors in leading people to error and there- 
fore into divisions. Learning of these weak- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 97 

nesses of the mind, that so easily lead to a per- 
version of truth, one might hastily conclude that 
there is no norm of truth and therefore that 
people cannot see alike. Indeed, the differences 
of opinion in religion and other matters are 
often condoned by the assertion that "people can- 
not see alike." Is this true, and, if so, how far? 

Over against the statement that people cannot 
see things alike, I put the indisputable statement 
that they cannot possibly see things unlike if 
they see them at all. Every person on earth sees 
red as red, unless, indeed, he is color blind, and 
then he does not see it at all, in the proper sense 
of the word.' Two and two make four to every 
mind in the universe. Given the same premises, 
every logical mind will come to the same con- 
clusion and cannot possibly come to any other 
conclusion. The whole law and order of the uni- 
verse is based upon this fact, and without it no 
science or order would be possible. 

We will discover that the differences of 
opinion among men are not to be ascribed to the 
intellect so much as to the will and sensibilities. 
We wish to refer now to a chief cause of division 
of opinion, and the only one that involves blame ; 
viz. : the human will. Multitudes of people are 
divided who see things alike and are of the same 
opinion so far as the intellect is concerned, but 



98 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

the trouble lies in the will power. They de- 
liberately do that which they know is not right, 
for selfish reasons. If this were the only cause 
of division, our problem would be an easy one. 
For then the only proper attitude of the right- 
eous towards those who differ from them, would 
be that of unqualified opposition. Indeed, we 
are always tempted to act on this basis by trust- 
ing in ourselves that we are right, and treating 
those who differ from us as wrong and guilty and 
as deserving nothing but our condemnation. If 
guilt were the only cause of division, we would 
have but two political parties, the one contain- 
ing all the righteous and the other all the wicked. 
From a religious standpoint there would be but 
two classes ; viz., saints and sinners. But the 
problem before us is not such an easy one. The 
causes that lead to differences of opinion are 
numerous and complex. It is not an easy matter 
to get at the truth, although we might think at 
first thought that it is. Every one seems to be 
surrounded by an atmosphere that reflects, re- 
fracts, bends, twists, distorts and colors the rays 
of truth as they come to him. 

Neither age, talent, experience, education, 
piety nor honesty make a man error-proof ; as 
may be readily discovered even by a child. For 
the people around us who possess these qualities 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 92 

are divided among all the different religious and 
political parties. And when people are divided 
into different parties, that teach contradictory- 
doctrines, they cannot possibly all be right, al- 
though they may all be wrong. 

Inquiring more particularly into the causes of 
division of opinion, aside from guilt, we shall 
discover the following to be among them: finite,, 
limited faculties, limited and false ideas, obtained, 
through heredity and ignorance, preconceived 
ideas and prejudices. 

In the search for truth, as in almost every- 
thing else, there are two extremes, both of which, 
should be avoided. On the one hand are those 
who are too ready to accept new ideas without 
proper examination. They are "tossed to and 
fro, and carried about with every wind of doc- 
trine." At the other extreme stand the narrow,, 
self-righteous bigots who absolutely refuse to^ 
even examine the claim of any truth they do 
not already possess. They know it all without 
finding it out. It matters not whether you speak: 
of politics, religion or anything else, they know 
all about it without investigation. They never 
read any but their own party papers and books 
and never hear any but their own speakers and 
preachers. 

It is said that a father and son s^ot into a re- 



100 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

ligious discussion. The father was an infidel 
and the son tried to convert him to Christianity. 
They argued and argued until midnight. Finally 
the father said, "Son, there is no use talking, 
you can't convert me if you argue all night; I 
am established." The next morning they went 
for a load of wood, and as they left the woods 
the horse got balky and wouldn't move an inch. 
"What is the matter with this horse, anyway?" 
asked the father. "Why," replied the son, "he 
is established." The Bible says, "Be ye not as 
the horse or as the mule, which have no under- 
standing." It is bad enough for a mule to get 
balky, but what a pity that man, created in the 
image of God,, should become balky and refuse 
to learn the truths that make for his peace and 
progress and for the enlargement of the king- 
dom of heaven. 

An Arabic proverb says : "Mankind are four. 
He who knows not and knows not he knows not ; 
he is a fool, shun him. He who knows not and 
knows that he knows not ;■ he is simple, teach 
him. He who knows and knows not that he 
knows : he is asleep, wake him. And he who 
knows and knows that he knows ; he is wise, 
follow him." The trouble is to know who 
""knows not and knows not that he knows not," 
.and who "knows and knows that he knows." 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 101 

For they both speak with absolute assurance that 
they are right. 

Illustrations of how blissfully ignorant of 
truth we can be are found in the facts that Capt. 
John Smith sailed up the James River to reach 
India and that the Indians planted gunpowder. 

It is said that on Lookout Mountain there is 
a building with windows so constructed that if 
you look out through the one you see a snow- 
storm ; through another, you see it raining ; while 
through a third, the sun is shining. Thus it is 
that we look at truth through the colored glasses 
of prejudice and selfish interests, and see what 
is not. 

Probably you have heard about the two Irish- 
men who get into a fist-fight over a soap sign. 
One insisted that it read "Ivory Soap," and the 
other, "It Floats." They saw it from a different 
angle, and that often accounts for differences of 
opinion. 

How expectant attention can deceive us was 
illustrated a few years ago when Crystal Palace, 
London, was on fire. A large throng of people 
were in distress because they saw a favorite 
monkey burning on the roof. The monkey was 
later found safe in an adjoining building. It 
was an old coat that the imagination of the 
crowd had transformed into a monkey. Thus 



102 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

it is that people see ghosts, and almost anything 
they are looking for, through a vivid imagina- 
tion. 

In multitudes of cases people are divided be- 
cause they use words in a different sense, or mis- 
understand their significance. Years ago, when 
I was keeping my father's books, there used to 
come into the office a bright young man who 
had more natural ability than education. We 
were both fond of discussion, and often had 
informal debates. One day we debated on 
"Woman suffrage." I opened up on the subject 
and as I proceeded my opponent got restless to 
reply. When he took the floor he exploded some- 
thing as follows : "I am opposed to 'Woman Suf- 
fer-age' with every drop of vitality within my 
skin. I will use hand, tongue and purse against 
'Woman Suf-fer-age.' In short, I am so bitterly- 
opposed to 'Woman Suf-fer-age' for the all-suf- 
ficing reason that I don't want women to suffer." 
I said, "Amen!" and we were agreed for once. 
You smile, and yet three- fourths of our differ- 
ences would vanish if we patiently conferred to- 
gether long enough to understand each other 
clearly. 

The courts recognize that the best of people 
are blinded when their own interests are in- 
volved, and reject jurymen on this basis. Who 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 103 

expects parents to be perfectly impartial in their 
judgment when their own children are involved? 
The difference of opinion on the slavery ques- 
tion was largely a matter of geographical loca- 
tion, and 90 per cent, of us belong to the political 
or religious party to which our parents belonged 
or to the one to which our associations or envi- 
ronment drew us. Had we been born in the 
Catholic Church most of us would be good, 
faithful Catholics, as all history demonstrates, 
and as our own lives in other directions abun- 
dantly prove. In a series of articles entitled 
"Why I Am What I Am," one of the most noted 
preachers in this country candidly admits that 
his church relationship is a mere matter of birth. 
This truth is not very congenial to our boasted 
independence of thought and investigation, but 
it is the truth nevertheless. The power of the 
above-named fetters to hold us in bondage to 
error is illustrated in all history, sacred and 
secular. It took Peter about ten years after 
Pentecost, with special miraculous manifesta- 
tions, to see that Gentiles were creatures as well 
as Jews, and that therefore he was commissioned 
to preach to them also. Paul, the pious, earnest 
and conscientious, "verily thought he was doing 
God service" in persecuting the Saviour who had 
been pointed out as the Christ by many infallible 



104 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

proofs. The Jews crucified the Lord of glory 
largely through ignorance, due to their being 
blinded by their traditions, or inherited religious 
ideas, and therefore Jesus prayed on the cross, 
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do." Luther was mighty in throwing off 
his inherited ideas, and yet he retained so many 
of them that any church that would to-day prac- 
tise and teach just as Luther did, would be con- 
sidered very near to the Roman Catholic Church. 
Cotton Mather, one of the most enlightened men 
that ever lived, believed in witches and hung 
them, and many of the pious and enlightened 
people of New England shared this belief with 
him. Good, pious neighbors w r ill give testimony 
in court, as to what they saw and heard, of the 
most contradictory character. In nine cases out 
of ten, we find in the Bible just what we bring 
to it; and thus the most pious and best educated 
see the most contradictory doctrines in the same 
passages of Scripture and fight for them with 
the greatest tenacity, all in the name of con- 
science. And the saddest thing about it all is 
that all these people show by their consecrated 
lives that they love God and are sincerely trying 
to serve him. In politics, we see the same pit- 
iable state of affairs. In 1896 about one-half of 
our good Christian men voted for the free coin- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 105 

age of silver to save their country, and the other 
half voted for a gold standard for the same 
reason. It does not require any argument to 
prove that at least half of these voters were so 
blinded by ignorance and party bias that they 
did not see the truth, and possibly all of them 
were. What a great pity that the good Chris- 
tian people should be thus divided through party 
bias and prejudice and go to slaughtering each 
other, like the enemies of Israel; so that they 
simply neutralize each other's influence and 
power, while the enemy of right runs off with 
the victory and spoil. It is this mixture of the 
good with the bad in two political parties that 
enables evil to hold its own ; while if all the 
good were united, through the truth, into one 
political party, arrayed against all the bad in an- 
other political party, they could carry this coun- 
try for Jesus Christ at every election. 

Having considered the causes that lead to 
differences of opinion, how, in the light of these 
facts, should we treat those who differ from us? 

In the first place, we should deal with them 
in humility. When we see how the great and 
good men of all history have been hindered from 
seeing the plainest and simplest truths by their 
inherited and preconceived ideas, it should take 
the conceit out of us and make us verv fearful 



105 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

lest we are suffering with the same dread dis- 
ease. For it is to be noted that hardly any one 
who suffers from this malady is aware of it. 
Cromwell's words to Parliament will bear a uni- 
versal application, when he said, "I beseech you, 
by the bowels of the Lord, that you conceive 
it possible that you may be mistaken." Xot only 
is it possible, but it is probable, that we are mis- 
taken in a great many of our ideas. Therefore 
we should approach others in an humble, teach- 
able spirit. Let us not imagine that we know 
it all, and treat those who differ from us with 
self-righteous scorn and contempt. 

And that leads me to say that we should treat 
those who differ from us, with love, respect and 
sympathy. I believe that more reformers have 
been crippled in their efforts by failing in this 
than in any other way. We are likely to attribute 
all our failures to the sin and bad character of 
others, when the fault often lies in ourselves. 
God gives a vision of some great truth or needed 
reform; as, for example, the prohibition of the 
liquor traffic, or the union of God's people en 
the primitive gospel. The message is sweet to 
us, and so we go on our way with great joy, 
feeling sure that we will soon convert everybody 
to our righteous cau?e. But, alas ! we soon dis- 
cover that people will not convert very fast. 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 107 

Our argument seems to us more clear and in- 
fallible every time we repeat it, and yet the peo- 
ple fail to come to our position. And so we are 
likely to lose faith in the people, and come to the 
conclusion that it is nothing but sin and guilt 
that causes them to reject our message. The next 
step is to forget our own weaknesses, trust in 
ourselves that we are right, and treat with hate 
and contempt these who differ from us. Treating 
our opponents with hate and scorn, we lose both 
our humility and Christian character, and develop 
into the most hideous and ungodly characters 
on earth, self-righteous Pharisees. And so it 
happens that we reformers often need reforma- 
tion worse than those whom we seek to reform. 
But you say, did not Jesus and the Apostles 
severely denounce sinners ? Yes, but they always 
first made sure that they were sinners. Jesus 
could read men's hearts and, therefore, made no 
mistake, while Paul always reasoned with his op- 
ponents out of the Scriptures in love and humil- 
ity, and only condemned them after clear and 
positive evidence that the fault was in their 
motive. Paul says, in writing to Timothy, "the 
servant of the Lord must not strive ; but must 
be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient ; in 
meekness instructing those that oppose them- 
selves ; if God peradventure will give them re- 



108 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

pentance to the acknowledging of the truth." 
And, where he exhorts to "reprove" and "re- 
buke," it is with "all longsuffering." James says, 
"The wrath of man worketh not the righteous- 
ness of God." We are never commanded to 
despise, hate or denounce any man ; but, on the 
other hand, we are to love every one, even our 
enemies. 

We are all human, and when it is as clear as 
daylight to us that we have the truth and argu- 
ment on our side, it is a great temptation to cut 
to pieces and roast our opponents. But is it 
Christlike to do it? Do we forget how long it 
took us to come to the position that now seems 
so clear to us ? Some one has said that, in dealing 
with children, "we should remember that they are 
left-handed," and this is certainly true of people 
in their relation to truth. The slowness with 
which people take up new ideas is a merit as well 
as a fault. We could have no stability and 
progress anywhere if it were not for this inertia 
in convictions. "The Athenians and strangers 
sojourning there spent their time in nothing else 
but either to tell or to hear some new thing," 
and if we would all be occupied in that way, not 
much would be accomplished in the world. If 
we would become disciples of every propagand- 
ist whose arguments we cannot answer on the 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 109 

spur of the moment, there would be nothing but 
change and confusion. Realizing the difficulties 
in the way of finding truth, and observing how 
even the wisest and best have been deceived and 
ensnared in error, naturally ought to make people 
conservative in accepting new ideas, and the 
same reasons should make us patient with those 
who differ from us. They usually need our 
patient and sympathetic instruction more than 
our contempt, hatred and denunciation. 

All this being true, we should never forget, 
however, that it is our sacred duty to treat those 
who differ from us, in truth. There are two 
attitudes that are very easy to take. The one is 
to treat our differences with childish sentimental- 
ism, saying, "Peace, peace/' when there is or 
ought not to be any peace. The other is to hate 
and abuse those who differ from us, and to treat 
their opinions as beneath our contempt. But the 
difficult thing to do is to tell the whole truth, as 
we see it, and to do it in love and humility. We 
are under obligation to tell the truth boldly what- 
ever the outcome may be. To those who threaten 
us and command us net to tell the truth, we must 
reply in the language of Peter and John: 
"Whether it be right in the sight of God to 
hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. 
For we cannot but speak the things which we 



110 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

have seen and heard." When people cry, "Peace, 
peace," at the expense of truth and right, and 
want us to speak "smooth things" instead of 
God's Word, we must take warning from 
God's words to Ezekiel, which apply to every 
preacher of truth, "When I say unto the wicked, 
Thou shalt surely die ; and thou givest him not 
warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from 
his wicked way, to save his life: the same wicked 
man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will 
I require at thine hand." Paul went into the 
Jewish synagogues repeatedly to lead them into 
the full truth, although he raised strife and con- 
tention in so doing, and even suffered violence 
at their hands. Unfortunately, a large per cent, 
of Christians have formed a conspiracy of 
silence on matters in which they differ. We 
have so little of the Spirit of Christ that we can- 
not even talk over our differences without getting 
angry and exhibiting the fruits of the flesh. 
And so we say, "We will agree to disagree," 
and we continue to nourish, pet and worship our 
differences as if they were gods. This puts a 
mighty padlock on the growth into the unity of 
the faith and knowledge and judgment which 
Christ and the Apostles enjoined upon us. We 
need to get the New Testament conception of the 
hideousness and sinfulness of all divisions among 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 111 

God's people. And while we recognize the fact 
that there will always be differences of opinion 
as long as we are ignorant and sinful and weak, 
nevertheless it is our Christian duty to use our 
utmost effort to diminish and remove these dif- 
ferences. There always will be sin in this world 
but we dare not be satisfied with it or abide in 
it ; but, on the other hand, we must fight it with 
all the power we possess. The same is true with 
divisions and differences of opinion. 

We must, however, not overlook the im- 
portant differences between matters of faith and 
of opinion. Matters of faith are directly re- 
vealed in the Bible, and upon these all Christians 
can and must agree as soon as they get a fair 
look at them. While matters of opinion, which 
are not directly revealed in the Bible, but are in- 
ferred from things revealed, are important, they 
are not all important, like matters of faith. But 
the more we overcome the hindrances to finding 
truth, of which we have spoken, the more we will 
be of the same mind and judgment in all things. 
For truth is not divided, and we will all see it 
alike in so far as we see clearly. As a rule, we 
can readily unite on the most important truths, 
and therefore on those we need to unite on for 
our present duty. While, if, through lack of 
faith, we turn away from the clear duty to seek. 



112 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

one that is easier, and requires less sacrifice, we 
usually become hopelessly divided and thus fail 
in our effort. 

In conclusion, having a clear conception of 
the baneful and ruinous effect of differences of 
opinion, and being aware of the powerful causes 
which hinder us from getting at the truth and 
thus divide us, let us strive day and night, in 
prayer and labor, to get the truth ourselves and 
to lead others into the truth. For in and through 
the truth, we shall, with "one mind" and "one 
soul," go conquering and to conquer, in the name 
of King Jesus, for the enlargement of his king- 
dom of love, peace and joy. 



PART II. 

HOW I FOUND CHRIST'S CHURCH 



CHAPTER I. 

Scriptural Baptism. 

One of the chief things that led me to 
identify myself with the people working for 
Christian union, was my experience with regard 
to baptism. Indeed, I .am more and more con- 
vinced that baptism is the main key to the 
question of Christian union. We can differ on 
questions of theoretical theology and still work 
together in harmony in practical Christian ac- 
tivities. But if we differ on the question of bap- 
tism, we cannot take the first step in preaching 
the gospel and in leading souls to Christ, in the 
New Testament way, without getting into con- 
flict. The only way that union meetings of 
different denominations have been at all possi- 
ble, has been by ignoring the plain teaching and 
practice of the Apostles on the question of bap- 
tism. We never can have Christian union in 
the authority of Christ, .which is the only union 
which will satisfy his prayer and demand, until 
we agree on the two simple ordinances which 
are the forms in which the gospel embodies 



116 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

itself to bless our souls. And, fortunately, these 
are the easiest things to unite on. When free 
from prejudice, there is no question on which 
Christians can more easily agree than that of 
baptism, as the testimony of the scholars and 
churches that follow in this chapter abundantly 
demonstrate. The consummation of Christian 
union will have to patiently wait until inherited 
and acquired prejudices become sufficiently al- 
layed so that all Christians can look at the ques- 
tion of baptism dispassionately. Then it will 
be discovered that we all agree on this question 
and the main barrier to Christian union will be 
removed. In our weakness we want to procure 
Christian union without giving up our sectarian 
ideas that have been superadded to the Xew 
Testament teaching, and that have caused our 
division. And so we try to compromise by 
"agreeing to disagree" or by ignoring the teach- 
ings of the New Testament. But such efforts 
must be futile and disappointing. We can never 
unite on the gospel until we agree in the gospel 
teaching. We can never unite in obeying the 
Master until we unite in our opinions as to what 
the Master has commanded us to do. But, thank 
God, the field is rapidly ripening for this agree- 
ment and consequent union. 

As is usually the case, I received my early 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 117 

ideas on baptism by heredity and environment, so 
far as I had any ideas on the subject. The re- 
ligious people with whom I was associated in 
my early life taught and practiced sprinkling and 
infant baptism, and, of course, I assumed that 
they must be right in the matter. Although I 
read the Bible through several times, I did not 
see its teaching on this subject, as I was not 
particularly interested in it. For reasons ex- 
plained in previous chapters — that we look 
through colored glasses — multitudes of people 
daily read their Bible who never see what is in 
it; but imagine, as a matter of course, that it 
teaches what they bring to it through hereditary 
and preconceived ideas. 

As already stated, I was first led to think on 
this subject while I studied New Testament 
Greek under President Cary, of the Meadville 
Theological School. When we came to the word 
baptisoo, Dr. Cary told the class that all Greek 
scholars of note agree that the meaning of the 
word in the mouth of Jesus was to immerse. 
This statement was a great surprise to me, and 
I decided to discover for myself whether this was 
the fact or not. This was the beginning of my 
investigation of the subject of baptism. I found 
that Dr. Cary was correct in his statement. 
What influenced me greatly was the fact that 



118 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

the German rationalists, who are recognized as 
among the best scholars of the world, and who 
are perfectly impartial on this subject, as they 
do not care what the Bible teaches about baptism, 
all say that baptism is immersion, without ever 
hinting at a possibility for difference of opinion. 
I investigated the matter for several years, as I 
found opportunity, until there was not the shad- 
ow of a doubt left in my mind that immersion is 
New Testament baptism. 

While a student at Oberlin Theological Sem- 
inary, I found that all the authorities they used 
in Xew Testament Greek, taught immersion, 
while their churches practise sprinkling. In 
studying Hebrews in the Greek, we used Dr. 
Westcott's commentary. When we came to Heb. 
10:22, "having our bodies washed with pure 
water," Dr. Westcott said this referred to the 
"laver of regeneration" or the primitive practice 
of immersion. When we studied Romans in 
Greek, we used Dr. Sanday's International Crit- 
ical Commentary. The professor told us it was 
the very best and probably would be for years io 
come. When we came to Rom. 6: 4, "buried with 
him through baptism," Dr. Sanday never raised 
a doubt about the meaning, but in eloquent words 
spoke about the beautiful representation of 
burial and resurrection with Christ in baptism. 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 



119 



This astonished me very much, as Drs. West- 
cott and Sanday were noted Episcopalian schol- 
ars, and the Episcopal churches practise sprink- 
ling. We used Dr. Thayer's New Testament 
Greek lexicon, which the professor informed us 
was the very best in the English language. This 
lexicon defined baptizoo as meaning to dip, and 
never hinted that sprinkling or pouring might be 
its meaning. As I said above, I found Dr. Cary 
correct in claiming that all Greek scholars of 
note agree that the meaning of the word in the 
mouth of Jesus was to immerse, and I have 
never been able to get hold of a single New 
Testament lexicon that defines baptizoo as ever 
meaning to sprinkle or pour. 

The following chart and facts will help us to 
get at the truth about the meaning of the Greek 
word baptizoo without quoting from a long list 
of lexicons : 

A STUDY IN MEANING OF WORDS. 



Words 


Proper 
Meaning 


Secondary 
Meaning 


Metaphoric 
Meaning 


bapti'zoo.. 


To dip, 
immerse 


Cleanse by dipping .. 


To overwhelm 


'ranti'zoo . 


To sprinkle 


Cleanse by sprinklinr 






'ekche'oo 


To pour out 


Distribute (pour out 
money) largely 


To pour or rush forth 


SHOOT 


Discharge 
weapon .. 


To kill by shooting .. 


[To kill] 




POISON 


Give poison 


Kill with poison 


[To killl 


HANG 


To suspend 


To kill by hanging. .. 


[To kill] 



120 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

You notice in the chart that we have three 
separate and distinct words in the Greek for 
immersion, sprinkling and pouring; and these 
words have their primary or proper, secondary 
or tropical meanings, all of which must be 
differentiated. The primary or proper meaning 
has reference to specific acts, the secondary 
meaning refers to things done by means of these 
specific acts, while the tropical or metaphorical 
meaning departs from the specific meaning of 
the words and therefore cannot have reference 
to the specific outward acts indicated by the 
words. For this reason it is a law of language, 
recognized by all scholars, that you must give 
a word its primary or proper meaning when it is 
employed in commanding an outward act, unless 
the context demands another meaning. 

Notice the English words slwot, hang and 
poison. These express specific outward acts ; 
and, then, in their secondary meaning, they mean 
to kill, but always to kill in the way indicated by 
the primary meaning of the word. A man can 
be hung, shot or poisoned without being killed ; 
but if it is reported that he was hung, shot or 
poisoned, we would all understand that he was 
killed. However, you cannot conceive of words 
so changing their meaning, that when it is said 
a man was hung, it means that he was shot, or 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 121 

when it is said he was poisoned, it means he was 
hung. No more is it conceivable that when the 
Greek word baptisoo (to immerse) was used, it 
meant to cleanse by sprinkling (rantizoo), or 
when the word rantizoo (to sprinkle) was used, 
it meant to cleanse by immersing (baptizoo). 
These words refer primarily to separate and 
distinct outward acts. It is true they may meet 
in their secondary meaning in the idea to cleanse; 
but they always refer to cleansing in the way 
indicated by the primary meaning of the word 
used. When they travel so far from their pri- 
mary or proper meaning, which has reference to 
specific outward acts, that their meaning is said 
to be tropical or metaphorical, they lose their 
specific idea and have no longer any reference 
to the specific acts denoted by the words. 

It is true that words can and do often change 
or enlarge their meaning. But this is always to 
supply a need created by the lack of a proper 
word to express an associated idea. Now, both 
the specific and general ideas with reference to 
the application of water are so copiously supplied 
with words in the Greek, that they preclude the 
necessity of changing the meaning of a word like 
baptizoo to supply such a need. We have louoo, 
to wash or bathe the body ; niptoo, to wash a 
part of the body, as the hands, feet, face, etc. ; 



122 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

plunoo, to wash clothes; brechoo, to wet, to rain ; 
katharizoo, to cleanse ; ekchcoo, to pour ; ran- 
tizoo, to sprinkle ; baptizoo, to immerse, etc. 

Thus we have a threefold guard to keep 
baptizoo to its primary or proper meaning of to 
dip or immerse. First, an abundance of Greek 
words to express every general and specific idea 
about the application of water, except that of 
immersion ; second, the fact that a tropical mean- 
ing of a word cannot refer to the specific out- 
ward act indicated by the word ; and third, the 
law of interpretation which demands that a word 
be given its primary or proper meaning in com- 
mandments, or plain narrative, unless the con- 
text expressly demands a different meaning. 

The above definitions of the word baptizoo 
are taken from Dr. Thayer's "New Testament 
Greek Lexicon." In reply to letters inquiring 
about Dr. Thayer's "New Testament Greek Lex- 
icon," the following answers were received. It is 
the "best" (Professor Hodge, of Princeton) ; it 
is the "very best" (Dr. Alexander, of Vanderbilt 
University) ; "nothing can compare with it" (Dr. 
Hersman, president of the Southwestern Pres- 
byterian University). This opinion is practically 
made unanimous from the fact that Dr. Thayer's 
Lexicon is used at all of the leading schools in 
the country. 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 123: 

A request for an authoritative lexicon that 
gives "sprinkle" or "pour" as a meaning of bap- 
tizoo, elicited the following answers : "There is 
no such lexicon" (Professor Humphreys, of the 
University of Virginia, and Professor Dooge, 
of Colby University) ; "I know of none" (Pro- 
fessor Flagg, of Cornell) ; "I do not know of 
any" (Professor Tyler, of Amherst). "Baptizoo 
means to immerse. All lexicographers and critics 
of any note are agreed in this." — Dr. Moses 
Stuart. 

Thus we learn, through the testimony of ex- 
perts, without consulting all the numerous Greek 
lexicons, that they define the word baptizoo as 
meaning to immerse and that none of them say 
it means to sprinkle or to pour. 

The great mass of Christians know nothing 
about the Greek experts who make the lexicons, 
but are much better acquainted w r ith and in- 
fluenced by the great church leaders and church 
standards. Therefore we present the following 
quotations : 

Scholars and Churches Admit that Christ Taught 
Immersion. 

Note. — These quotations are taken from a 
tract of mine on baptism. 

i. Council of Toledo, 633 (Catholic) : "We 
observe a single immersion in baptism." 



124 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

2. Council of Cologne, 1280 (Catholic) : 
"That he who baptizes when he immerses the 
candidate in water," etc. 

3. Martini (Roman Catholic) : "In all of the 
pontificals and rituals I have seen (except that of 
Madeleine de Beulieu), and I have seen many, 
ancient as well as more recent, immersion is 
prescribed." 

4. Bollinger (Roman Catholic) : "Baptism 
was administered by an entire immersion in 
water." (Chu. History, vol. 2, p. 294.) "A 
mere pouring or sprinkling was never thought 
of." (First Age of Chu., p. 318.) "Baptism 
by immersion continued to be the prevailing 
practice of the church as late as the fourteenth 
century." (Hist. Ch., vol. 2, p. 295.) 

5. Ritual of Greek Catholic Church: "The 
priest immerses him, saying the servant of God 
is immersed, in the name of the Father," etc. 

6. Russian Catechism (Greek Catholic) : 
"This they hold to be a point necessary, that no 
part of the child be undipped in wafer," etc. 

7. Alex. De Stourdza (native Greek) : "The 
verb baptize, immergo, has, in fact, but one sole 
acceptation. It signifies, literally and always, to 
plunge. Baptism and immersion are, therefore, 
identical, and to say baptism is by aspersion is as 
if one should say, immersion by aspersion, or any 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 125 

other absurdity of the same nature." (Con. sur 
LaDoc. et L'Esprit, p. 87.) 

8. Dr. Kyriasko, of University of Athens, 
Greece : "The verb baptize in the Greek language 
never has the meaning of to pour or to sprinkle, 
but invariably that of to dip." (Letter to C. G. 
Jones, Lynchburg, Va.) 

9. Syrian Ritual (Nestorians) : "The priest 
immerses him in water, saying such a one is bap- 
tized in the name of the Father," etc. 

10. Martin Luther.: "Baptism is a Greek 
word. In Latin it can be translated immersion, 
as w"hen we plunge something into water, that 
it may be completely covered with water ; they 
ought to have been completely immersed." (The 
Sacrament of Baptism.) 

11. Lutheran Catechism, p. 216: "In what did 
this act (baptism) consist?" Answer: "The one 
to be baptized was first immersed in water, sig- 
nifying death, and then he was drawn out again 
and was dressed with a new dress, as if he now 
were a different new being." 

12. John Calvin (Presbyterian) : "The word 
baptize signifies to immerse, and it is certain that 
the rite of immersion was observed by the an- 
cient church." (Inst. Book 4, c. 15.) 

13. Richard Baxter (Presbyterian) : "It is 
commonly confessed by us to the Anabaptists, as 



126 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

our commentators declare, that in the Apostles' 
time the baptized were dipped over head in the 
water." (Dis. Right to Sac, p. 70.) 

14. Dr. IV. D. Powell, while in Athens r 
Greece, wrote : "I found that all churches in 
Greece — the Presbyterian included — are com- 
pelled to immerse candidates for baptism, for, 
as one of the professors remarked, 'the common- 
est day laborer understands nothing else for 
baptizoo but immersion.' " 

15. Zwingle (Reformed) : "When ye were 
immersed into the water of baptism, ye were en- 
grafted into the death of Christ." (Com. Rom. 
6:3.) 

16. John Wesley (Methodist) : "We are 
buried with him, alluding to the ancient manner 
of baptizing by immersion." (Notes on N. T., 
Rom. 6:4.) "Baptized according to the custom 
of the first church and the rule of the Church of 
England, by immersion." (Journal, vol. 1, p. 
20.) In Savannah, Ga., Sept., 1737, Wesley was 
found guilty of breaking the laws of the realm, 
among other things "by refusing to baptize Mr. 
Parker's child otherwise than by dipping." 
(Jour., vol. 1, pp. 42, 43.) 

17. The Methodist Discipline of 1846, and 
the old Discipline compiled by Wesley himself, 
assert that "Jesus was baptized in the river of 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 127 

Jordan, and that the sixth of Romans means 
simply a burial in water." 

18. Adam Clark (Methodist) : "As they re- 
ceived baptism as an emblem of death, in vol- 
untarily going under the water, so they received 
it as an emblem of the resurrection into eternal 
life, in coming up out of the water." (Com., 
vol. 4, N. T.) 

19. Prayer Book (Church of England) : "The 
priest shall dip him in the water, discreetly and 
warily." 

20. Conybeare and Hoivson (Episcopalians) : 
"It is needless to add that baptism was ad- 
ministered by immersion, the convert being 
plunged beneath the surface of the water to 
represent his death to the life of sin, then raised 
from this momentary burial to represent his 
resurrection to the life of righteousness. It 
must be a subject of regret that the general dis- 
continuance of this original form of baptism 
has rendered obscure to popular apprehension 
some very important passages of Scripture." 
(Life of St. Paul.) 

26. Prof. L. L. Paine (Congregational) : 
"It may be honestly asked by some, Was im- 
mersion the primitive form of baptism? As to 
the question of fact, the testimony is ample and 
decisive. It is a point on which ancient, medieval 



128 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

and modern historians alike, Catholic and Prot- 
estant, Lutheran and Calvinist, have no con- 
troversy. No historian who cares for his reputa- 
tion would dare to deny it, and no historian who 
is worthy of the name would wish to." 

2J. Dr. George Campbell (Presbyterian) : 
"I have heard a disputant of this stamp, in de- 
fiance of etymology and use, maintain that the 
word rendered in the N. T. baptize means more 
properly to sprinkle than to plunge. One who 
argues in this manner never fails, with persons 
of knowledge, to betray the cause he would de- 
fend ; and though in respect to the vulgar, bold 
assertions generally succeed as well as arguments, 
sometimes better, yet a candid mind will disdain 
to take the help of a falsehood even in support of 
the truth." (Lect. on Pul. El. Lect., 10, pp. 294, 

295-) 

28. Philip S chaff (Un. Theo. Sem.) : "The 
baptism of Christ in the river Jordan, and the 
illustrations of baptism used in the N. T., are all 
in favor of immersion rather than sprinkling, as 
is freely admitted by the best exegetes, Catholic 
and Protestant, English and German. Nothing 
can be gained by an unnatural exegesis." 
(Teaching of Apostles, pp. 55, 56.) 

29. Paul: "We are buried with him by bap- 
tism into death ; that like as Christ was raised up 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 129 

from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
so we also should walk in newness of life." 
(Rom. 6: 4.) 

30. Peter says our bodies are washed in bap- 
tism. (1 Pet. 1 : 23.) 

31. Mark: "Jesus was baptized in 

[Marg., Greek, into] the Jordan" (Mark 1:9, 
A. R. V.). He could not have been baptized 
into the water without being immersed. 

Churches Have Changed Immersion to Sprink- 



1. The first record of sprinkling for baptism 
is that of Novatian, A. D. 250. It was thought 
he was dying and, as he could not be immersed, 
they sprinkled water on him. Thus originated 
what was called clinic or death-bed baptism. Its 
introduction was vigorously opposed for centu- 
ries and clinics were not admitted to sacred or- 
ders, many doubting their baptism. 

2. Pope Stephen III. In 754 the monks of 
Cressy asked Stephen III. : "Is it lawful, in case 
of necessity, occasioned by sickness, to baptize 
an infant by pouring water on its head from a 
cup or the hands?" The Pope replied: "Such a 
baptism, performed in such a case of necessity, 
shall be accounted valid." Basnage says : "This 
was accounted the first law against immersion." 



130 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

3. The Council of Ravenna, 131 1, decreed: 
"Baptism is to be administered by trine aspersion 
or immersion." This was the first authority for 
sprinkling except in case of sickness. 

4. Cardinal Gibbons (R. Catholic) : "Since 
the twelfth century the practice of baptizing by 
affusion has prevailed in the Catholic Church, 
as this manner is attended with less inconven- 
ience than baptism by immersion." (Faith of 
Our Fathers, p. 275.) 

5. Bishop of Bossuet (R. Catholic) : "The 
case (communion under one kind) was much the 
same as that of baptism by immersion, as clearly 
grounded on Scripture as communion under both 
kinds could be, and which, nevertheless, had been 
changed into infusion, with as much ease and as 
little contradiction as communion under one kind 
w r as established, so that the same reason stood for 
retaining one as the other. It is a fact most 
certainly avowed in the Reformation, although 
some will cavil at it, that baptism was instituted 
by immersing the whole body in water. This 
fact, I say, is unanimously acknowledged by all 
the divines of the Reformation: by Luther, by 
Melancthon, by Calvin, by Casaubon, by Grotius, 
by all the rest." (Varia. Protest., vol. 2, p. 370.) 

6. Archbishop Kcnrick (R. Catholic) : "The 
change of discipline which has taken place as to 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 131 

baptism should not surprise us, for, although the 
church is but the dispenser of the sacraments 
which her Divine Spouse instituted, she right- 
fully exercises a discretionary power as to the 
manner of their adminstration. Immersion was 
well suited to the Eastern nations, whose habits 
and climate prepared them for it, and was, there- 
fore, practiced in the commencement, whenever 
necessity did not prevent it. Cases, which at 
first were exceptional, gradually multiplied, so 
that, at length, the ordinary mode of baptism 
was by affusion. The church wisely sanctioned 
that which, although less solemn, is equally ef- 
fectual. The power of binding and loosing, 
which she received from Christ, warrants this 
exercise of governing wisdom. It is not for the 
individuals to question a right which has been at 
all times claimed and exercised by those to whom 
the dispensation of the mysteries is divinely in- 
trusted." (Kenrick on Bap., p. 174.) 

7. Haydock, Endorsed by Pope Pius IX.: 
"The church, which cannot change the least 
article of faith, is not so tied up in matters of 
discipline and ceremony. Not only the Catholic 
Church, but also the pretended reformed 
churches, have altered the primitive custom in 
giving the sacrament of baptism and now allow 
of baptisms by sprinkling and pouring water 



132 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

upon the person baptized." (Notes on Douay 
Bible, Matt. 3: 16.) 

8. Lutheran Catechism, p. 208: "What is 
baptism ?" Answer : "To dip under water." "Do 
we still baptize in that way?" Answer: "No; 
because of the rough climate, the subject now is 
only sprinkled." 

9. John Calvin (Presbyterian) : "Wherefore 
the church did grant liberty to herself, since the 
beginning, to change the rites somewhat, except- 
ing the substance. It is of no consequence at all 
whether the person that is baptized is totally im- 
mersed, or whether he is merely sprinkled by an 
affusion of water. This should be a matter of 
choice to the churches in different regions." 

10. Westminster Assembly (Presbyterian), 
1643 : "I* 1 the Assembly of Divines, held at West- 
minster in 1643, it was keenly debated whether 
immersion or sprinkling should be adopted ; 25 
voted for sprinkling, and 24 for immersion ; and 
even that small majority was obtained at the 
earnest request of Dr. Lightfoot, who had ac- 
quired great influence in that assembly." (Edin- 
burgh Ency., vol. 3, p. 236.) 

11. Dr. Wall (Episcopalian): "One would 
have thought that the cold countries should have 
been the first that should have changed the cus- 
tom from dipping to affusion. But by history it 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 133 

appears that the cold climates held the custom 
of dipping as long as any; for England, which is 
one of the coldest, was one of the latest that ad- 
mitted this alteration of the ordinary way. . . . 
The offices or liturgies for public baptism in 
the Church of England did all along, so far as I 
can learn, enjoin dipping, without any mention 
of pouring or sprinkling. The Prayer Book, 
printed in 1549, adds: 'And if the child be weak, 
it shall suffice to pour water upon it.' " (Wall's 
Hist. Inft. Bap., vol. 3, pp. 575, 579.) 

12. Dean Stanley (Episcopalian) : In speak- 
ing of immersion, he says : "The cold climate of 
Russia has not been found an obstacle to its con- 
tinuance throughout that vast empire. Even in 
the Church of England it is still observed in 
theory. The Rubric in the public baptism for in- 
fants enjoins that, unless for special causes, they 
are to be dipped, not sprinkled." (Institutes, pp. 
18, 19.) The Church of England has changed to 
sprinkling, but its creed teaches immersion. 

13. Sir John Floyer: "I have now given what 
testimony I could find in our English authors, to 
prove the practice of immersion from the time 
the Britons and Saxons were baptized, till King 
James' days, when the people grew peevish with 
all ancient ceremonies, and through the love of 
novelty and the niceness of parents, and the 



134 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK. 

pretense of modesty, they laid aside immersion." 
(History of Cold Bathing, p. 61.) 

14. Bishop A. C. Coxe, editor of Ante-Nicene 
Fathers (Episcopalian) : "The word (baptizo) 
means to dip. In the Church of England dipping 
is even now the primary rule. But it is not the 
ordinary custom. It survived far down into 
Queen Elizabeth's time, but seems to have died 
out early in the seventeenth century. I ought to 
add that in France (unreformed) the custom of 
dipping became obsolete long before it was dis- 
used in England. But for this bad example, my 
own opinion is, that dipping would still prevail 
among Anglicans. I wish that all Christians 
would restore the primitive practice." (In a 
letter to J. T. Christian.) 

Thus we have the testimony of all the schol- 
ars in all the churches, who are recognized as 
Greek experts outside of their own party, that 
the New Testament teaches immersion and that 
it ha 5 ^ been changed to sprinkling and pouring by 
human authority. We do not believe that this 
change was made with a bad motive. It was 
evidently done in sincerity and in the honest be- 
lief that it was the right thing to do. We must 
accept the honest testimony of these scholarly 
experts that the New Testament teaches im- 
mersion, but we certainly believe they were mis- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 135 

taken in taking the liberty to change Christ's 
command. If we take such liberties, all of the 
commandments of Christ will soon be set aside 
and confusion will be worse confounded. Indeed, 
it is this very liberty of substituting what men 
thought best for the things revealed in the New 
Testament, that has caused our present sectarian 
divisions by adding human names, creeds, cus- 
toms, etc., to the primitive gospel. 

Scriptures to Show It is Wrong to Change 
Christ's Commands. 

"They have transgressed the laws, changed 
the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant" 
(Isa. 24:5). 

"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teach- 
ing for doctrines the commandments of men. 
For laying aside the commandments of God, ye 
hold the tradition of men. Ye reject the com- 
mandment of God that ye may keep your own 
tradition. Making the word of God of none 
effect through your tradition, which ye have de- 
livered ; and many such like things ye do" (Mark 

7=7-9i x 3)- 

"Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it 
be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth 
thereto" (Gal. 3: 15). 

"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and 



136 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is 
as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as 
iniquity and idolatry" (i Sam. 15:22, 23). 

"He that turneth away his ear from hearing 
the law, even his prayer shall be abomination" 
(Prov. 28:9). 

"Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine 
and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, 
which built his house upon a rock. And every 
one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth 
them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, 
which built his house upon the sand ; and the 
rain descended, and the floods came, and the 
winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it 
fell; and great was the fall of it" (Matt. 7:24, 
26, 27). 

"If ye love me, keep my commandments. 
He that hath my commandments and keepeth 
them, he it is that loveth me. If a man love me, 
he will keep my words. Ye are my friends, if 
ye do whatsoever I command you" (John 14: 
15, 21, 23: 15:14). "Why call ye me Lord, 
Lord, and do not the things which I say" (Luke 

6:46). 

"And all the people that heard him, and the 
publicans, justified God, being baptized with the 
baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers 
rejected the counsel of God against themselves, 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 137 

being not baptized of him" (Luke 7:29, 30.) 
"And hereby do we know that we know him, 
if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I 
know him, and keepeth not his commandments, 
is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2: 

3,4)- 

But, after all, the very best way for ordinary 
people to learn the meaning of baptism, is to 
go to the English Bible. Although human au- 
thority and prejudice have hindered the trans- 
lators from translating the Greek word, and 
thus telling us what it means in English, the con- 
texts and sidelights on the subject make its mean- 
ing so plain that all can readily see it if divested 
of prejudice and preconceived ideas. 

By reading the introduction to the English 
Revised Bible, you will learn that the translators 
of the Authorized Version were forbidden to 
translate the word. Other translators have fol- 
lowed their example ; so that it is neither trans- 
lated to sprinkle, to pour nor to immerse in our 
standard English Bibles. The Greek word bap- 
tisma has simply had the last letter dropped and 
been carried over into English bodily. But the 
word has been translated in numerous editions in 
various languages, and whenever it has been 
translated, it was always by the word immerse 
or an equivalent term. No scholar, in any Ian- 



138 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

guage, has ever had the temerity to translate it 
to sprinkle or to pour. Even our English trans- 
lators translate it when it is not used as an 
ecclesiastical term. And when they translate it, 
they say it means to dip. In 2 Kings 5 : 14, we 
read of Naaman, "He went down and dipped 
[baptijzato] himself seven times in Jordan. " 

We may not have a sufficient knowledge of 
Greek to determine what Jesus meant when he 
commanded us to be baptized. But the Apostles 
certainly understood him; and if we can find out 
what they did when they baptized, and we do the 
same thing, then we know we are right, and have 
done what Christ commanded. 

Let us turn to the Sacred Record and see 
what they did when they baptized. 

We read : "And there went out unto him all 
the country of Judaea, and all they of Jerusalem, 
and they were baptized of him in the river Jor- 
dan, confessing their sins, . . . And it came 
to pass in those days, that Jesus came from 
Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in 
[Greek into, marg. of A. R. V.] the Jordan. 
And straightway coming up out of the water, 
he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a 
dove descending upon him" (Mark 1:5, 9, 10). 
"John was baptizing in 7Enon near to Salim, be- 
cause there was much water there" (John 3 : 23). 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 



139 



"And they both went down into the water, both 
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 
And when they came up out of the zvater . . . 
he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8: 38, 39). 
"We are buried with him by baptism," "planted 
in the likeness of his death/' "and raised in the 
likeness of his resurrection" (Rom. 6:4, 5). 
"Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
science and our bodies washed with pure water" 
(Heb. 10:22). "Except a man be born of the 
zvater and of the Spirit he cannot enter the king- 
dom of heaven" (John 3:5). The italics are 
mine. 

The following chart summarizes our study of 
baptism in the English Bible : 

BAPTISM IN THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 



The Bible and Immersion 
Require : 


Sprinkling and Pouring 
Require: 


1. Water. Acts 8:36; 10:47 


1. Water 




2. Much water. John 3: 23 






3. Going to water. Mark 1:9.. 






4. Going- into water. Acts 8: 38. 


4. Staying out of water 


5. Putting into water. Mark 1:9. 
(Margin of A. R. V.) - 






6. Form of burial. Col. 2: 12 __ 


6. No form of burial 


7. Form of planting. Rom. 6: 5. 


7. No form of planting 


8. Form cf birth. John 3: 5 


8. No form of birth 


9. Form of resurrection. Rom. 
6:4 


9. No form of resurrection 


10. Form of doctrine. Ron*. 6: 17. 


10. No form of doctrine.. 


11. Bodies washed. Heb. 10:22. 






12. Coming up out of the water. 
Mark 1:10 









140 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

We thus learn that in being baptized they 
went to water, to much water, went into the 
water, were put into the water, were buried in 
the water, planted in the water, born out of the 
water, raised out of the zvater, had their bodies 
washed and came up out of the zvater. If we do 
these things, we are Scripturally baptized and 
have been immersed. 

The following passages are the only places 
where sprinkling and pouring are found in the 
New Testament : 

Sprinkling and Pouring in the New Testament. 

1. Heb. 9: 13. — Blood. 

2. Heb. 9: 19.- — Blood. 

3. Heb. 9:21. — Blood. 

4. Heb. 10:22 — Hearts. 

5. Heb. 1 1 : 28.— Blood. 

6. Heb. 12:24. — Blood. 

7. 1 Pet. 1 : 2.— Blood. 

8. Matt. 26:7, 12.— Ointment. 

9. John 2: 15. — Money. 

10. Acts 10:45. — Spirit. 

11. John 13:5. — Water. 

12. Luke 10: 34. — Oil and Wine. 

13. Rev. 14: 10. — Wrath. 

You will notice that none of these Scriptures 
refer to baptism and that none of the Scriptures 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 141 

that do refer to baptism hint at sprinkling or 
pouring as the action. Sprinkling and pouring 
for baptism must come from some other source. 
We have already learned whence they came. 

Some people will argue against immersion 
for hours, and when they are driven into their 
last trenches, and about to be caught, they try 
to escape by saying, ''Baptism doesn't amount to 
anything at any rate, it's a mere form. The 
great thing is Holy Spirit baptism." 

To begin with, Holy Spirit baptism is not 
baptism at all, strictly speaking. It is only fig- 
urative baptism. It is not always called baptism. 
It is called an anointing (Luke 4: 18), a drink- 
ing (1 Cor. 12: 13), an enduing (Luke 24:49), 
a filling (Acts 2:4), and a sealing (Eph. 1 : 13). 
Xo person can be literally sprinkled or poured 
with the Holy Spirit, or immersed into Him, as 
the Lloly Spirit is a person. The figurative 
meaning of baptism is to overwhelm, and to be 
baptized with the Holy Spirit is to be submerged 
or overwhelmed in His power, or to come com- 
pletely under His control. Holy Spirit bap- 
tism is not a command to obey, but a promise 
to enjoy. It can only be administered by Christ 
himself (John 1:33). Therefore, whenever in 
the New Testament baptism is commanded 
for preachers to administer or sinners to 



142 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

obey, it can never refer to Holy Spirit bap- 
tism, but must always refer to water bap- 
tism. 

In the light of New Testament teaching and 
practise, it is marvelous that any one who claims 
to follow its guidance, can make light of bap- 
tism. "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why did 
Christ walk eighty miles to be baptized of John, 
and insist that it was necessary for him to be 
baptized "to fulfil all righteousness"? (Matt. 3: 
13-17). "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why, in 
giving his commission to all gospel workers, did 
Christ say, "Go ye therefore, and make disciples 
of all nations, baptizing them"? (Matt. 28: 19). 
Those who neglect to baptize their converts have 
certainly not wholly obeyed their Lord. "Bap- 
tism a mere form?" Then, why did Jesus say, 
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel 
to the whole creation. He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved"? (Mark 16:15, 16). 
Not only is every preacher commanded to baptize 
every convert, but every convert is also com- 
manded to be baptized ; and baptism is made one 
of the conditions of salvation with every proper 
gospel subject. "Baptism a mere form?" Then, 
why did Jesus say to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, 
I say unto thee, Except one be born of water 
and of the Spirit, he cannot inherit the kingdom 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 143 

of God"? (John 3:5). All church standards 
refer this to baptism. "Baptism a mere form?" 
Then, why did Peter, on Pentecost, when he 
used "the keys of the kingdom," revealed Christ's 
will and testament for sinners, and thus proclaimed 
the conditions of salvation, or of forgiveness, to 
all whom the Lord should call through the gospel, 
say to penitent seekers, "Repent ye, and be bap- 
tized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
Christ unto the remission of your sins, and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit"? (Acts 
2:38). And why is it said, "They then that 
received his word were baptized"? (Acts 2:41). 
Will not the same follow to-day if people will 
receive the Word of God without any subtrac- 
tions? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why is it 
said of the Samaritans that "when they believed 
Philip preaching good tidings concerning the 
kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, ' 
they were baptized, both men and women"? 
(Acts 8: 12). Will not the same follow to-day 
when people believe the whole gospel ? "Baptism 
a mere form?" Then, why is it said of the 
eunuch that when Philip "preached unto him 
Jesus," he said, "Behold, here is water; what 
does hinder me to be baptized?"? And why did 
he not go "on his way rejoicing" before he 
"came up out of the water" ? (Acts 8 : 35, 39) . If 



144 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

our converts do not ask for baptism, and we send 
them away as finished products without going 
down into the water with them, are we preach- 
ing and practising the same gospel as did the 
primitive evangelists under the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, 
why did not even Christ himself speak peace to 
the soul of Saul, but sent him to Damascus 
and directed Ananias to tell him what he must 
do, who said to him, "And now why tarriest 
thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy 
sins, calling on the name of the Lord"? (Acts 9: 
6, 7; 22 : 16). Does not the Lord send his serv- 
ants to-day with the same message to those who 
put off their obedience to him in baptism? "Bap- 
tism a mere form?" Then, why was there a spe- 
cial miraculous demonstration to avoid objections 
to the baptism of the household of Cornelius, the 
first Gentile converts : and why did Peter com- 
mand them to be baptized with water, after they 
had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? 
(Acts 10:44-48). Does not this show that Holy 
Spirit baptism was not to displace water baptism ? 
"Baptism a mere form?" Then, why was Lydia 
baptized as soon as she gave "heed unto the 
things which were spoken by Paul"? (Acts 16: 
14, 15). If properly instructed, will not all peo- 
ple be baptized as soon as they are willing to give 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 145 

heed unto the word of the Lord? "Baptism a 
mere form?" Then, why, when the Philippian 
jailor was told by Paul and Silas what he "must 
do to be saved," was he baptized "immediately," 
"the same hour of the night"? (Acts 16: 29-33). 
Will not the same gospel, if preached in the same 
way, have the same effect to-day? "Baptism a 
mere form ?" Then, why is it said that "many 
of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were 
baptized"? (Acts 18:8). Will not those who 
hear and believe in sincerity to-day also be bap- 
tized? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why is it 
said by the Holy Spirit that Priscilla and Aquila 
expounded unto Apollos "the way of God more 
accurately," after "he was mighty in the scrip- 
tures" and "had been instructed in the way of 
the Lord," and "taught accurately the things of 
Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John"? (Acts 
18:24-26). If the Lord was then concerned to 
have preachers set right on water baptism, even 
when their gospel knowledge was accurate in 
every other particular, does he not have a simi- 
lar concern now? and if our hearts are in perfect 
accord with his, will his concern not be our con- 
cern? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why was 
it Paul's first concern, when he came to Ephe- 
sus, to set the brethren right on water baptism, 
even though they were called "disciples," and 



146 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

had already been baptized (immersed) once? 
(Acts 19: 1-7). This shows that baptism is not 
a mere outward act, but is important because of 
its relation to the Lord Jesus, an obedient heart, 
and to the Holy Spirit. If the Lord, through 
the Apostle, directed these disciples to be bap- 
tized a second time, when they found they were 
not Scripturally baptized, are not these his direc- 
tions for to-day also? and should not his preach- 
ers show people the truth if they have not been 
Scripturally baptized, and, if possible, induce 
them to obey the Scriptural baptism, even when 
they thought they had been Scripturally bap- 
tized ? 

It is true that Paul said to the Corinthians, 
"I thank God that I baptized none of you, save 
Crispus and Gaius ; lest any man should say that 
ye zvere baptized into my name. And I baptized 
also the household of Stephanas: besides, I 
know not whether I baptized any other. For 
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the 
gospel" (1 Cor. 1 : 14-17). In the words I have 
placed in italics, we are told why he was glad 
he baptized only a few of them. It was lest they 
should be his partisans, as they were divided on 
human leaders. We certainly dare not so inter- 
pret the words, "for Christ sent me not to bap- 
tize, but to preach the gospel," as to contradict 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 147 

the commission of Christ and all the numerous 
clear Scriptures we have just quoted. He evi- 
dently meant that he himself did not do the bap- 
tizing, but had others do that part of the work, 
while he gave his time and strength to the 
preaching of the gospel. The same was true 
of Jesus himself, as we learn from John 4:1, 2: 
"When therefore the Lord knew that the Phari- 
sees had heard that Jesus was making and bap- 
tizing more disciples than John (although Jesus 
himself baptized not, but his disciples)." He 
baptized them and he didn't baptize them. That 
is, he commanded them to be baptized and had 
his disciples perform the act. So evidently with 
Paul. If he meant that his converts were not to 
be baptized, then he would certainly not have 
baptized any of them. 

That Paul was zealous in seeing that all his 
converts were baptized, is apparent from the 
cases already quoted, especially the baptism of 
the Ephesians. For when he discovered that 
their baptism was not Scriptural, he, first of all, 
insisted that they be baptized again. It is fur- 
ther apparent from his teaching in his Epistles. 
In 1 Cor. 12:13 we read, "For in one Spirit 
were we all baptized into one body . . . and 
were all made to drink of one Spirit." In Gal. 
3 : 25, 27, we read, "For ye are all sons of God, 



148 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of 
you as were baptized into Christ did put on 
Christ." In Rom. 6:3, 4, we read, "Or are ye 
ignorant that all we who were baptized into 
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We 
were buried therefore with him through baptism 
into death : that like as Christ was raised from 
the dead through the glory of the Father, so we 
also might walk in newness of life." In Col. 2: 
12, we have similar language, "having been 
buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also 
raised with him through faith in the working 
of God, who also raised him from the dead." 
In Heb. 10:22, it is said, "Having our hearts 
sprinkled from an evil conscience : and having 
our body washed with pure water." After read- 
ing these Scriptures, no one can doubt that Paul 
had all his converts baptized, and believed in 
baptism just as strongly as Christ and Peter. 

That Peter had the same opinion about bap- 
tism near the end of his life, as~at Pentecost, is 
evident from his words in 1 Pet. 3:21: "Which 
also after a true likeness doth now save you, 
even baptism, not the putting away the filth of 
the flesh, but the interrogation of a good con- 
science toward God, through the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ." 

That to refuse to be baptized after knowing 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 149 

that Christ has commanded it is to disobey him 
and to rebel against his authority, is clear from 
the words of the Holy Spirit recorded in Luke 
7 : 29, 30 : "And all the people when they heard, 
and the publicans, justified God, being baptized 
with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and 
lawyers rejected for themselves the counsel of 
God, being not baptized of him." 

And yet, despite all these Scriptures, many 
pious saints are so blinded by their prejudices 
and traditions, that instead of encouraging and 
exhorting people to obey this command to be 
baptized, that is given to test the soul's complete 
surrender to Christ, and is called the "obedience 
of faith" or of the gospel, they encourage people 
to live in disobedience to Christ by affirming that 
baptism is "a mere form" or "non-essential." 
If subordinates in an army or earthly kingdom 
act thus and use their influence to induce others 
to disobey the orders of those over them, they 
are punished for treason. Any army that is 
thoroughly united in the authority of its com- 
mander and cheerfully and promptly obeys h\s 
orders, is usually successful ; while the largest 
and best army on earth would be doomed to 
defeat the moment its officers and men would 
disobey orders and each do as he pleases, or as 
he thinks best. The reason Christ's army on 



150 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

earth to-day is weak and constantly defeated and 
retreating is because his orders are disregarded 
and the "think so's" and traditions of men are 
followed instead. Implicit obedience to the few 
simple commands of Christ would at once unite 
all his followers into one invincible army that 
would enable the world to believe and know that 
he is the Christ of God (John 17:20, 23). 

If anything is clear, it is that Christianity is 
a personal matter. That each individual must 
meet and accept for himself the claims of Christ. 
No one can be saved by proxy. No one can go 
to heaven because of the faith, obedience or 
prayers of a parent, wife, husband, sister or 
brother. This being true, as Christ has com- 
manded every creature to be baptized (Mark 15: 
15, 16; Acts 2: 38, etc.), it is evident that infant 
baptism is not valid. The parents cannot obey 
for the child, however good their intentions. 
The child, when it reaches the age of accounta- 
bility, must face the commandments of Christ 
for itself, and either deliberately obey or dis- 
obey and reject him. If infants remained in- 
fants, they would do no harm in the church, 
even if they could do no good. But they will 
grow into accountability and then the church is 
full of unconverted people. 

May we prayerfully do all in our power to 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 151 

hasten the day when all of Christ's followers 
will forsake the traditions, in which men have 
changed Christ's teaching on baptism, and will 
gloriously reunite in his will on this command 
which is so clearly revealed in the New Tes- 
tament. 



CHAPTER II. 
The New Testament Church. 

"See that thou make all things according to the 
pattern that was showed thee." — Heb. 8 : 5. 

Introduction. 

My early ideas of the church, its doctrines, 
and of the teachings of Christ as revealed in the 
New Testament, were rather general and vague. 
As is usual, it was chiefly a matter of hereditary 
traditions. After I found my way back to Christ 
and to belief in the Word of God, the question 
naturally arose, which church shall I join, if 
any? Sectarian divisions had a hand in driving 
me into infidelity and confusion, and I was now 
compelled to investigate more closely this strange 
puzzle. As I have already intimated, what I 
learned at Meadville about baptism and the teach- 
ings of the various religious bodies, had directed 
my attention to the people generally known as 
"Disciples of Christ" or "Christians," who are 
working for Christian union through the restora- 
tion of the primitive church. I will now give 
the result of my study of the model church as 
revealed in the New Testament. 

153 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 153 

Note. — Most of this and the following chap- 
ter are taken from my booklet on "The Church 
of Christ: What It Is, and Why It Exists." 

The Church of Christ. ■ 

The primary meaning of the word church is 
a local body of Christians organized for work 
and worship (Acts 14: 2j). From this its mean- 
ing enlarged so as to apply to the members of 
all the churches (Eph. 3: 10), and finally to all 
the saints in heaven and on earth (Heb. 12: 23). 

Of Christ expresses the church's relationship 
to Christ. It is Christ's church. He bought it 
(Eph. 5:25), built it (Matt. 16: 18), and is its 
foundation (1 Cor. 3:11). It is his body (Rom. 
12:5), of which he is head (Col. 1:18) and 
which is so identified with him that it is called 
Christ (1 Cor. 12: 12) ; it is his kingdom over 
which he is king (Matt. 16: 19) ; it is a fold of 
which he is the shepherd (John 10: 16) ; he is a 
vine of which the members are branches (John 
15:5); it is his house (Heb. 3:6); it is his 
dearly beloved wife (Eph. 5:25; 2 Cor. 11:2). 
Christ so loves the church and identifies himself 
with it because of the sweet, loving, spiritual 
fellowship there is between himself and it : and 
because it is his visible representative here on 
earth, and the instrument through which the 



154 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

Holy Spirit's work in the conversion of the world 
and the sanctification of believers, is carried on. 
Other names given to the church are "church 
of God" (i Cor. 1:2), "churches of God" (1 
Thess. 2: 14), "churches of saints" (1 Cor. 14: 
33), "temple of God and of the Holy Spirit" (1 
Cor. 3: 16), and "the pillar and ground of the 
truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). All these names are 
Scriptural and proper when used in the proper 
way. 

Church-members. 

The members of the church or churches of 
Christ are called "Christians" (Acts 11:26; 1 
Pet. 4: 14, 16), "disciples" (Acts 9:1), "saints" 
(Rom. 1:7)1 "brethren" (1 Cor. 15:6), "mem- 
bers" (Rom. 12: 5), etc., all of which names are 
right when used to express the proper idea or 
relationship. 

The Greek word for church is ekkleesia and 
comes from ekkaleoo, which means to call out 
or summon forth; and members of the church 
are the ones who have been called of God (2 
Tim. 1:9) through the gospel (2 Thess. 2: 14) 
from a life of sin to a life of holy service (Acts 
26: 16-18). Church-members or Christians are 
said to be "saved," "elected," "washed," "sancti- 
fied," "redeemed," "recreated," "regenerated," 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 155- 

"translated," "espoused," "converted," "recon- 
ciled," "adopted," "quickened," "resurrected," 
etc. This gives us an idea of the radical change 
that must take place before a person can become 
a true church-member. It will be noticed that 
the change expressed by these terms is twofold. 
The one is subjective, and the other objective. 
The one is a change of heart or character,, 
and the other is a change of state or re- 
lationship to God. The heart is changed by the 
Holy Spirit (John 3:5), through the preached 
gospel (1 Pet. 1:23), which leads to faith (Rom. 
10 : 17 ; Acts 15:9) and repentance (Acts 2 : 38) ; 
while the attitude toward God is changed by 
confession (Rom. 10:9), obedience in baptism 
(Acts 2:38) and by God's pardon to the sinner 
(Acts 2:38). The necessity of this twofold 
change is manifest from Christ's teaching when 
he says, "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing 
them" (Matt. 28: 19), "Preach the gospel to 
every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved" (Mark 16: 16), and "Ex- 
cept a man be born of water and of the Spirit, 
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 
3:5). Also by the teaching of the Apostles 
when they say, "Repent, and be baptized every 
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 



156 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38), "And now why 
tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash 
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord" 
(Acts 22: 16), "Not by works of righteousness 
which we have done, but according to his mercy 
he saved us, by the washing of regeneration 
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Tit. 3: 
5), "For ye are all the children of God by faith 
in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have 
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" 
(Gal. 3:26, 27), "For by one Spirit we are 
all baptized into one body . . . and have been all 
made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12: 13), 
"The like figure whereunto even baptism doth 
also now save us (not the putting away of the 
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good con- 
science toward God), by the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:21), "Know ye not, 
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 
Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore 
we are buried with him by baptism into death : 
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:3, 4). 
If it were God's purpose to simply save indi- 
viduals, privately and without human agency, 
the subjective change of heart is all that would 
be necessary. But a home must be provided 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 157 

for the nurture of the new-born spiritual babes 
and a church organized to herald the gospel 
to every creature; therefore, a definite act of 
open committal or enlistment is required in bap- 
tism. When this becomes thoroughly under- 
stood, the emphasis the New Testament puts 
on baptism will be appreciated, and people will 
no longer avoid the passages that refer to it, 
or try to explain them away. Neither faith, 
repentance nor baptism have any saving virtue 
in themselves. They are important only be- 
cause of their relation to Christ and the sinner. 
As Christ has made them conditions of salvation 
to those who have heard the gospel, they must 
either obey or be rejected because of a rebellious 
heart (Luke 7:29, 30). 

We learn that to be qualified for membership 
in Christ's church a person must know the Lord 
(Heb. 8: 11), must believe in him (Acts 8:37), 
must repent of his sins (Acts 2: 38), must con- 
fess him as Christ (Rom. 10:9), and must obey 
him from the heart in baptism (Rom. 6: 17). 
All these are conscious, personal acts that must 
be performed by the person becoming a member. 
No one can become a member by purchase, 
fleshly birth or the obedience of parents or other 
persons. It will also be noticed, that according 
to the teaching of the New Testament the condi- 



158 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

tions of salvation and church membership are the. 
same. The New Testament never speaks of per- 
sons as saved or Christians who are not members 
of the church of Christ where they live. 

Church Officers. 

On the divine side the church of Christ is a 
kingdom with a constitution and an absolute 
ruler. But the administration of this kingdom, 
as it comes in contact with the varying condi- 
tions that confront it in the world, is left to the 
local church with its officers. Officers are elected 
to increase the efficiency of the church in service 
(Acts 6: 1-7). In Eph. 4:11, 12, we learn what 
the officers of the church of Christ are and why 
they are appointed. "And he gave some apos- 
tles ; and some prophets ; and some evangelists ; 
and some pastors and teachers ; for the perfect- 
ing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, 
for the edifying of the body of Christ." Deacons 
were also appointed to serve tables and assist in 
other ways (Acts 6: 1-7; Phil. 1:1). The Apos- 
tles were personally commissioned by Christ 
(John 20:21-23; Acts 26: 16), miraculously in- 
spired to teach (1 Cor. 2 : 12, 13; 1 Pet. 1: 12) 
and endowed to perform miracles (2 Cor. 12: 
12) and to confer miracle-working power on 
others (Acts 8: 17, 18). After the church was 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 159 

thoroughly established and the New Testament 
written the apostolic office with its miraculous 
accompaniments ceased (Heb. 2:3, 4; 1 Cor. 
13:8). Prophets were appointed by miraculous 
endowment and ended with the same. Evan- 
gelists, elders and deacons are the permanent 
officers of the church of Christ. The special 
work of evangelists or preachers is to make dis- 
ciples and to organize and strengthen churches. 
Elders, or bishops, or pastors are local church 
officers, a plurality of which was appointed in 
each church (zActs 14:23). Their function is 
concerned with the spiritual welfare of the 
church. The work of deacons has already been 
indicated. The qualifications of evangelists, 
elders or bishops and deacons are given in the 
epistles to Timothy and Titus. The church 
officers are selected by the members (Acts 6: 1- 
7), and important matters of discipline are de- 
cided by a majority vote of the church- (2 Cor. 
2:6, see Greek). The local church government 
then is administered by a majority vote of its 
members and by the officers authorized by such 
a majority. Outside of Christ and the Apostles 
the New Testament does not recognize any 
authority higher than that vested in the local 
churches. General ecclesiastical organizations 
and church dignitaries with high-sounding titles 



160 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

are human inventions that were added later. 
Where there is no organized church to act, indi- 
vidual Christians have authority to administer 
the affairs of the church or kingdom (Acts 8: 
4:9: 10-18; 11 : 19-21 ). The only apostolic suc- 
cession endorsed in the Bible is that which re- 
sults from following the example of the Apostles 
in teaching and practice. 

A Christian's work in the local church is ob- 
ligatory under Christ. In addition to the local 
church work, early Christians co-operated in 
work covering a large territory and scope ; and 
formed a simple organization for this purpose 
(1 Cor. 16:3; 2 Cor. 8: 18, 19, 23). This ex- 
ample shows that voluntary organization of in- 
dividual Christians for general co-operative work 
is proper and Scriptural. Of this nature are 
missionary societies and benevolent associations 
which are formed to carry on general work, but 
have no ecclesiastical authority. 

The Mission of the Church. 

The mission of the church is to perpetuate 
and perfect itself and to add to its membership, 
through evangelization, the entire world as far 
and as fast as possible. The fundamental means 
adopted to carry out this mission is the church 
service. Our word church is not derived from 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK . 161 

the New Testament word used in speaking of 
the body of believers, and it has a tendency to 
hide the real idea of the New Testament. It 
primarily refers to a church building, then to 
the body of believers worshiping in the building,, 
and finally to believers in general. The inspired 
writers use the word ekkleesia, which means a 
gathering of people called from their homes into 
some public place. A. correct translation would 
be "assembly" or "congregation" as it has ref- 
erence primarily to a local body of Christians 
assembled for work and worship. If this pri- 
mary idea were restored, it would make mightily 
for the strengthening of Christ's kingdom. We 
usually put the emphasis on the church in gen- 
eral, universal and invisible, while the Holy 
Spirit puts the emphasis on the local, visible and 
tangible church. Our practical duties are con- 
nected almost entirely with the local church to 
which we belong and through which we chiefly 
help to build up the general and invisible church. 
The church is the assembled Christians first of 
all, and the first duty of Christians is to assemble 
(Heb. 10:25). For people to say that they be- 
long to the church (assembly), who do not as- 
semble or attend the church services, is an anom- 
aly, strictly speaking. 

The purpose of the assembly or church serv- 



162 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

ices is revealed to us in Acts 2 : 42, where we 
have a record of the practice of the first church 
of Christ. We read, "And they continued sted- 
fastly in the apostles' teaching and in fellowship, 
and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Here 
are four things mentioned as belonging to the 
service of the church. The first has reference to 
teaching the Word of God or, more especially, 
the teachings of Christ as revealed through his 
Apostles in the New Testament. The Apostles 
received their teaching through the inspiration 
of the Holy Spirit who revealed in the Xew 
Testament all things necessary for our guidance 
and edification (2 Pet. 1:3; Jude 3). Christ 
gave his Apostles commandments before his as- 
cension (Acts 1:2), which they were to teach 
to the church (Matt. 28:20), and the church is 
exhorted to give heed to these commandments 
(2 Pet. 3:2). Xot all the commandments that 
Christ gave while on earth are for the church, 
but only those he instructed the Apostles to teach 
after the descent of the Holy Spirit and the 
establishment of the church on Pentecost. Paul 
exhorts Timothy to commit unto faithful men, 
who are able to teach others, the things he had 
heard from him (2 Tim. 2:2), and further ex- 
horts him, "Study to show thyself approved unto 
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 163 

rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2: 
15) ; "I charge thee therefore before God and the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and 
the dead at his appearing and his kingdom ; 
preach the word, be instant in season and out 
of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long- 
suffering and doctrine" (2 Tim. 4: 1, 2). Alas! 
how often this last solemn charge of Paul goes 
unheeded. We preach in season and out of 
season, but do we preach the Word of God as 
we ought? The emphasis the New Testament 
puts on the Word of God can scarcely be over- 
estimated. It is the incorruptible seed (1 Pet. 
1 : 23 ) employed by the Holy Spirit to beget the 
Christian (Jas. 1:18; 1 Cor. 4:15); it is the 
sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6: 17) by which he 
pierces the sinner's hard heart (Heb. 4: 12) and 
brings conviction to his soul (John 16:8, 9) ; it 
is the nourishment for the new-born spiritual babe 
(1 Pet. 2:2); it is the means used by the Spirit 
to strengthen, sanctify and build up the members 
of the church (1 Thess. 2 : 13 ; John 17: 17 ; Acts 
20:32); it "is profitable for doctrine, for re- 
proof, for correction, for instruction in right- 
eousness; that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 
Tim. 3: 16, 17). No other books were used in 
the early church as authoritative and all efforts 



164 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

to replace it or to supplement it with human 
creeds, catechisms or disciplines is an unwar- 
ranted effort to steady the ark of the Lord. 

The second item of the public services is 
fellowship. The original word here is koinoonia, 
which, according to Dr. Thayer, means "joint 
participation," "a benefaction jointly contribu- 
ted, a collection." The word sometimes refers 
to joint participation in religious privileges and 
sometimes to joint collections or contributions 
made for gospel work. It seems to have the 
latter meaning here, as spiritual communion is 
embodied in the next item. That this was a 
feature of the public service is apparent from 
the words of Paul in I Cor. 16:2, "Upon the 
first day of the week let every one of you lay 
by him in store, as God hath prospered him." 
The Emphatic Diaglott translates thus, "Every 
first day of the week let each of you lay some- 
thing by itself, depositing as he may be pros- 
pered." While Paul gives these directions in 
reference to a particular collection taken for the 
poor saints in Judea, it is evidently given because 
it embodies the divine wisdom as to the best way 
of raising church money. It teaches that each 
church-member is to give weekly, according to 
his ability. When this precept is practiced and 
we restore the liberality of the primitive church 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 165 

(Acts 2:44, 45; 4:32, 35), there will be no 
financial problem in the church. 

The third item in church worship, according 
to Acts 2 : 42, is the "breaking of bread," or the 
Lord's Supper. This was the most important 
thing in the early church service. It was to 
commemorate the death of Christ and to point 
forward to his second coming (1 Cor. 11:26). 
Every Christian is under obligation to partake 
of the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:24), but each 
must examine himself before eating lest he eat 
condemnation to his soul (1 Cor. 11:28, 29). 
The greatest thing in the Lord's Supper is a 
spiritual eating or communion (John 6:32-58), 
and this is needed frequently. The primitive 
churches of Christ observed the Lord's Supper 
whenever they met for worship (1 Cor. n : 20), 
and this we learn was every first day of the 
week. "L T pon the first day of the week when 
the disciples came together to break bread" 
(Acts 20:7). The Greek article "tee" here in- 
dicates that it was on every first day of the week 
'that they met to break bread and this is con- 
firmed by 1 Cor. 16:2. The early churches 
never met for worship on the seventh day of 
the week or on the Sabbath, but always on 
the first day of the week, or on the Lord's 
Dav, in commemoration of Christ's resurrection 



166 TO INFIDELITY AXD BACK 

from the dead. It was the practice at first 
to have a meal in connection with the Lord's 
Supper, but as this led to abuse it was abolished 
by Paul (i Cor. 11:20-22, 34 J. The feet-wash- 
ing which is commonly supposed to have taken 
place at the time Christ first broke bread with 
his disciples, was simply a custom in vogue in 
that country, which Christ used to teach a lesson 
on humility. We have no record that the Apos- 
tles ever washed feet as a church ordinance or 
desired others to do so. When Christ washed 
feet it was not at a public church meeting, but 
at a private feast. 

The fourth item in church worship, as men- 
tioned in Acts 2 : 42, is "prayers." The prim- 
itive church believed profoundly in prayer. In 
fact, the entire New Testament is the record 
of a prolonged prayer-meeting. Paul, in writing 
to Timothy, says, "I exhort therefore that, first 
of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and 
giving of thanks be made for all men" (1 Tim. 
2:1), and Christ admonishes his disciples to 
"watch and pray" (Matt. 26:41). 

Self-preservation is the first duty, upon which 
all our helpfulness to others depends. So it is 
with the church. Its first duty is to perpetuate 
and strengthen itself through the means of grace 
God has provided ; but it will become sick and 



TO INFIDELITY AXD BACK 167 

soon die, if it does not reach out in loving serv- 
ices to others. It is commissioned to "make 
disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28: 18), but it 
cannot do this by merely proclaiming the gospel 
to all people. Paul preached the gospel in many 
lands, and a few missionaries could soon evan- 
gelize the entire world if this were all that is 
necessary. God spent thousands of years to pre- 
pare the soil for Paul's preaching and confirmed 
his message with miracles. We cannot evan- 
gelize the world by giving a few dollars to send 
a few missionaries to preach a few sermons. 
Most of the work of missionaries is educa- 
tional and philanthropic, or, in other words, pre- 
paratory. It will require the best and united 
efforts of all Christians to entirely open the door 
of faith among the heathen. Christ says, "Let 
your light so shine before men that they may 
see your good works and glorify your Father 
which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). Peter ex- 
horts Christians, "Having your behavior seemly 
among the Gentiles, that, wherein they speak 
against 3*011 as evil-doers, they may by your 
good works which they behold, glorify God" 
(1 Pet. 2: 12). The churches need the miracle 
of good works, through the power of the Holy 
Spirit, to confirm the message of our mission- 
aries. The acts that emanate from so-called 



168 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

Christian nations and people do more to hinder 
than to help the missionaries. If Christians will, 
by the power of the Spirit, live the life of Christ 
in the home, in business, in politics and every- 
where, the heathen will soon glorify God in 
Christ because of the good works which they 
behold. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye 
bear much fruit" (John 15:8). 

It is the mission of the church to bring 
heaven down to earth. If this is the high and 
holy calling of the church, is it a wonder that 
Christ so loved it as to give his life for it? The 
church is the "pillar and ground of the truth" or 
the material organization through which heaven 
is bearing its message of love to this sin-cursed 
world. Speaking of the church, Paul says, "If 
any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall 
God destroy" (1 Cor. 3:17). All who attain 
unto the mind of Christ will love the church 
and give themselves for it. 

The Unity of the Church. 

It was God's eternal purpose to unite all 
things in Christ (Eph. 1 : 9, 10). Christ declared 
that he would establish but one fold (John 10: 
16) ; he prayed that all his followers might be 
perfectly united and put that union as a neces- 
sary condition for the conversion of the world 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 169' 

(John 17:20-23); he died to unite all in one 
body (Eph. 2: 14-16), of which he is the head 
(Col. 1:18). 

If we turn to the book of Acts, we discover 
that the Holy Spirit, through the Apostles, did. 
establish but one church, and that it was thor- 
oughly united in love, teaching and practice. 
If there ever was an excuse for different Chris- 
tian denominations, it was for a Jewish Christian 
denomination and a Gentile Christian denomina- 
tion ; but the Holy Spirit did not establish such, 
denominations and Paul put forth the effort of 
his life to' prevent such a breach. Where in all 
history can you find twelve men more radically 
different mentally and temperamentally than the 
Apostles? Yet the Holy Spirit did not establish 
separate churches to cater to and further de- 
velop these temperamental eccentricities. All 
were united in one church so they could counter- 
balance and complement each other and thus per- 
fect their own character and give greater sym- 
metry to the church. "And when the day of Pen- 
tecost was fully come they were all with one ac- 
cord in one place" (Acts 2 : i_). After three thou- 
sand were added unto them we read, "They con- 
tinued daily with one accord in the temple" (Acts 
2: 46), while farther on we read, "And the multi- 
tude of them that believed were of one heart and 



170 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

of one soul" (Acts 4: 32). From the Epistles of 
Paul we learn that there was but one church in 
each community. Christ's relation to the church 
makes it impossible for Christians to be loyal to 
him and at the same time divided. All must be 
perfectly united in allegiance to him as king. 
He is the head of the body of which his fol- 
lowers are members. All the members of the 
body are perfectly united to each other and to 
the head ; and, although the members may differ 
in function, they are all directed by the same 
commandments, motives and purposes. As soon 
as a tendency toward division became manifest 
it was severely rebuked and ascribed to the car- 
nal nature. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, 
says, "Now, I beseech you, brethren, by the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak 
the same things, and that there be no division 
among you; but that ye be perfectly joined to- 
gether in the same mind and in the same judg- 
ment" . . . "For ye are yet carnal ; for where- 
as there is among you envying, and strife, and 
divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men ?" ( 1 
Cor. 1 : 10; 3:3). 

The seven landmarks of Christian union 
are revealed by Paul in the first six verses of 
the fourth chapter of Ephesians : "I therefore, 
the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 171 

worthily of the calling wherewith you were 
called, with all lowliness and meekness, with 
longsuffering, forbearing one .another in love ; 
giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit 
in the bond of peace. There is one body, and 
one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one 
hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one 
baptism, one God and Father of all, who is 
over all, and through all, and in all/' 

As long as these seven unities — one body, 
one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one 
baptism and one Father — are maintained, it 
will be impossible for a divided church to exist. 

On the other hand, divisions will speedily 
disappear as soon as these seven unities are re- 
stored. 

I add the following chart of the New Testa- 
ment church, which will serve as a summary and 
as a guide in the further study of this important 
subject: , 



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CHAPTER III. 

The Church Since the Apostles. 

The Apostasy of the Church. 

The apostolic unity of the church was main- 
tained for about three hundred years. During 
this period the church endured the ten great, 
general persecutions directed against it by the 
world-ruling Roman Empire, which resulted in 
the martyrdom of almost all of the Apostles and 
multitudes of other Christians. Despite the op- 
position of the mightiest powers on earth, the 
church scored the most marvelous victories and 
was on a fair way to conquer the whole world 
for Christ. Satan, perceiving that his opposition 
to a united church under the leadership of Christ 
was fruitless, now tried to get within the church 
and to shear it of its power by confusing its 
counsels and dividing its forces. Christ said, 
"Every city or house divided against itself shall 
not stand" (Matt. 12:25), and Satan knew that 
if he could get Christians to exhaust their ener- 
gies by contending with each other, their con- 
quest of the world would be at an end. He 
filled the church with speculative philosophy, 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 175 

heathen idolatry and the worldly spirit in gen- 
eral. As always, he used the pride, vanity and 
ambition of individuals to accomplish his pur- 
pose. If fallible human leaders and their 
opinions could be put in the place of the infallible 
Christ and his teachings, the work would be 
done ; because this would arouse the opposition 
of other ambitious human leaders and thus the 
church would be torn asunder and exhausted 
with internal strife and divisions. Alas that the 
church did not heed the earnest warning of Paul, 
"Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which 
cause divisions and offences contrary to the doc- 
trine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus 
Christ, but their own belly ; and by good words 
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the sim- 
ple" (Rom. 16: 17, 18). The selfishness of 
leaders and the lazy, careless indifference of the 
masses who blindly follow on, is what makes the 
creation and perpetuation of divisions among 
Christians possible. Perceiving that the division 
of the church would destroy its power, its leaders 
strove with might and main to preserve its unity. 
Had they exalted the Christ and used his Word, 
the sword of the Spirit, they would have suc- 
ceeded. But they were ambitious and worked 
for a united church so they could use its power 



176 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

to exalt themselves and their opinions and crush 
those opposed to them. Human creeds, as stand- 
ards of orthodoxy, were invented, and more 
stress was put on correct speculative opinions 
than on faith in Christ and Christlike living. 
Persons who would not subscribe to the specu- 
lative opinions of man-made creeds were perse- 
cuted and anathematized. The church formed 
a league with worldly rulers and used the strong 
arm of the law to crush those who would not 
accept its human standards of orthodoxy. The 
Inquisition, with the dungeon, stocks, guillotine 
and other diabolical means of torture, was called 
into requisition. It is claimed that no less than 
fifty million human beings were martyred in this 
effort of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, calling itself 
the church, to maintain unity on a human creed. 
Although this effort at union was largely suc- 
cessful, it was not Christian union. Paul says 
that Christian union is where Christians are of 
the same mind and judgment and all speak the 
same things (i Cor. I : 10), while this union was 
maintained by suppressing conscientious con- 
victions and their utterance. 

The Reformation of the Church. 

The effort at a forced union on a speculative 
human creed was never entirely successful. In 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 177 

the fastnesses of the mountains the Waldenses, 
Albigenses and others, maintained their religious 
freedom. The fire of religious liberty was 
smouldering, but not extinguished. It was cov- 
ered with the black coals of ecclesiastical igno- 
rance, brutality and tyranny; but by and by it 
worked its way to the light and illuminated the 
darkness of the age. The great Reformation 
burst forth into a mighty inextinguishable flame 
all over Europe, and, overleaping great barriers, 
it blazed forth in .America. The ecclesiastical 
shackles were torn asunder and the people were 
set free. I speak of the ultimate outcome, for 
this end was only attained after centuries of 
effort. Hereditary religious ideas, prejudices 
and customs become petrified, and it is only with 
the most desperate and long-continued efforts 
that individuals and bodies of people can free 
themselves from them. Failing to recognize how 
they are blinded through hereditary bias, envi- 
ronment and limited ideas, people imagine they 
have attained unto the ultimate truth, and thus 
their growth in knowledge ceases and they be- 
come fossilized into a sectarian party. People 
imagine that they are free when they are de- 
livered from religious and political tyrants that 
persecute and oppress them ; but their greatest 
bondage, and the one that makes the others pos- 



178 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

sible, is the hereditary and acquired prejudice, 
bias, bigotry and ignorance within themselves. 
The struggle of the Reformation was for re- 
ligious freedom. This struggle was by no means 
always unselfish and consistent. Protestants as 
well as Roman Catholics used force to crush 
those that would not submit to their creeds. 
Both in Europe and in America men's bodies 
were tortured and destroyed with the hope of 
saving their souls and in the endeavor to main- 
tain the unity of the church. Even where the 
church and the state were separated so that the 
church could not use the civil law to persecute 
its opponents, other means of coercion were 
used, such as boycotting, ostracism, excommuni- 
cation and anathemas. The idea of the Roman 
Catholic Church is that you cannot trust the 
people to interpret the Bible for themselves ; the 
Pope and the church must do it for them. 

The idea of Protestant sectarian creeds is 
largely the same. The members cannot be 
trusted to interpret the Bible for themselves, so 
the creed-makers have to do it for them. The 
difference is in degree and power of oppression 
rather than in kind. The entire idea is funda- 
mentally wrong. Speculative theology cannot 
save any one and sectarian creeds are harder 
to understand than the Bible itself. The people 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 179 

need the living, loving, personal Christ, and not 
the dry husks of speculative theology. We want 
uniformity in matters of faith that are clearly 
revealed and in allegiance to Christ, but do not 
need it in speculative opinions based on infer- 
ences as to what the Bible teaches. 

Freedom is absolutely necessary to progress 
and civilization. But freedom may be turned 
into a curse as well as a blessing. Criminals 
want freedom to gratify the lusts of the flesh 
(Gal. 5:13). Those in bondage to their own 
carnal nature must be put under restraint by 
those governed by moral principles. Even Chris- 
tians need to be guided and governed in spiritual 
matters, and have always felt this need. The 
trouble has been that mortal men have been ac- 
cepted as authoritative spiritual guides, or have 
tried to control the religious convictions and 
practices of their fellow-men by force. Christ is 
the Christian's only safe and proper guide. As 
a final result of the Reformation the Christian 
people in America and parts of Europe were 
set free from religious tyranny and left to 
choose their spiritual guides. Although they 
professed that the Bible was their only authority, 
they accepted human leaders and their opinions 
as guides and permitted these to interpret the 
Bible for them. Thus the freedom of the Ref- 



180 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

ormation was turned into the curse of division 
and sectarianism. Divided Protestantism is bet- 
ter than the religious tyranny of the Dark Ages ; 
but it is bad, and will be replaced with the Chris- 
tian union of the New Testament when loyalty 
to Christ and his Word is substituted for loyalty 
to human leaders and their opinions embodied 
in creeds. Christ said, "Every kingdom divided 
against itself is brought to desolation" (Matt. 
12:25). The truth of this has been sadly dem- 
onstrated in our divided Christianity. In how 
many homes has sectarian division wrought 
havoc with its religious life! How many hus- 
bands and wives have been lost to active service 
for the Master because of the chilling effect of 
indifference or opposition through sectarian dif- 
ferences ! How many children have become in- 
different or disgusted with religion, because their 
parents differed in their religious convictions ! 
Again, look at the effect of sectarian division in 
a community. Five church buildings and preach- 
ers where one could do the work, while the bal- 
ance could be devoted to the evangelization of 
the heathen. But the financial loss is the least. 
Preachers are poorly supported and therefore 
poorly equipped for their work, and people are 
encouraged to join the churches on almost any 
conditions through rivalry and the need of sup- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 181 

port for so many churches. Sinners go unre- 
buked through fear that their financial support 
will be lost; and, if disciplined, they are often 
received with open arms into a rival church. 
When we look at the kingdom of Christ at 
large, we see how it has come to desolation be- 
cause of divisions. Millions of dollars are 
wasted in rival churches, colleges, papers, 
preachers, books, etc. ; while the heathen stand 
with amazed incredulity before the mission- 
aries of a babel of denominations. Verily the 
reformed church needs reforming. 

A Movement for Christian Union. 

Divided Protestantism reached its climax in 
America at the beginning of the last century. 
This land of freedom offered a congenial soil 
for its perfect development and unfolding. 
Thus were exhibited more fully than ever be- 
fore the sin and folly of such divisions. The 
forces of Christ were largely wasted and de- 
feated through sectarian strife, and there was 
the bitterest feeling even between different 
branches of. the same denomination. Infidelity 
was rampant in the land and Christianity was 
at a low ebb. However, the love .of the Master 
was strong in many hearts, and these longed 
and prayed for better things. As by divine in- 



182 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

spiration, a great union movement sprang up 
simultaneously in different parts of the country. 
The outcome was what may be called the 
American Reformation, but is more properly 
called the Restoration movement. The burn- 
ing desire of the promoters of this movement 
was a reunion of the divided followers of 
Christ. After a thorough and prayerful con- 
sideration of the subject, it was decided that 
the only possible basis of union is the Bible ; 
and so the motto was adopted, "Where the 
Bible speaks we will speak, and where the 
Bible is silent we will be silent." It was de- 
cided to require a "thus saith the Lord" or 
an apostolic example for every item of teach- 
ing or practice. The reformers expected to 
bring about Christian union without leaving 
their respective denominations and forming a 
separate religious body. But an application of 
their motto in the study of the Bible led to 
results that they never dreamed of. They 
were compelled to give up their sectarian prac- 
tices one by one, and soon found themselves 
forced out of the denominational bodies. It 
now became clear to them that the real cause 
of the origin and perpetuation of sectarian 
divisions was the human element, in teaching 
and practice, added to the church since the 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 183 

days of the Apostks ; and that nothing but 
their removal and the restoration of the primi- 
tive church in name, creed and deed, could bring 
• the Christian union of New Testament times. 
Learning that, aside from the Apostles, there 
was no ecclesiastical authority or organization 
in New Testament times, above the local church, 
they proceeded to organize local churches of 
Christ after the primitive model, and invited 
both saints and sinners to unite with them in this 
work and in protesting against the sin of sec- 
tarian divisions. 

The Restoration of the New Testament Creed. 

In the evolution of the movement for Chris- 
tian union, it was soon discovered that human 
creeds, as standards of church or ministerial 
fellowship, are divisive in their nature and 
prevent the reunion of God's people. All 
claim to get their creed from the Bible ; but 
since creeds contradict each other in doctrine, 
they cannot all be right, although they may all 
be wrong. Human creeds are responsible for 
most of the heresy trials and have armed most 
of the infidelic attacks upon the church. The 
only way to permanently solve the creed prob- 
lem is to restore the divine creed given by the 
Holy Spirit to the primitive church. This is the 



184 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

only true Apostles' Creed and the only one 
that will never need any revision. This is 
none other than the divihity of Christ, the cen- 
tral truth of revelation and of Christianity. 
Jesus said, in answer to Peter's confession, 
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
God," "Upon this rock I will build my church" 
(Matt. 16: 16, 18). John declared of his Gos- 
pel, "These are written, that ye might believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and 
that believing ye might have life through his 
name" (John 20:31). Paul commanded, "Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
be saved" (Acts 16:31), and said, "Other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
which is Jesus Christ" ( 1 Cor. 3 : 11). This is 
what the Apostles preached everywhere, and 
required as a condition for baptism and church 
membership ; and it is the only creed they ever 
required. The church is not founded upon a 
system of speculative theology that even the 
learned cannot understand, but upon the lov- 
ing, divine personality of Jesus Christ, the 
Son of the living God. Get Jesus in the heart, 
and belief in his word and a Christlike life 
will inevitably follow. This is the only creed 
that can reunite divided Christendom. Chris- 
tians cannot unite on human leaders and their 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 185 

finite opinions, but they can all unite on Christ. 
The Restoration of Bible Names. 

It was further discovered that human names 
for God's people were divisive in nature and a 
barrier to Christian union. There is nothing 
in a name until it becomes authoritatively at- 
tached to a person or thing, but after it be- 
comes so attached, there is as much in the 
name as in the person or thing. Since the 
name Andrew Carnegie became attached to 
him, it is worth as much in money and in- 
fluence as Mr. Carnegie himself is worth. Thus 
it is that there is salvation in the name of Christ. 
"For there is none other name under heaven 
given among men, whereby we must be saved" 
(Acts 4: 12). 

The Bible names given to the church and to 
the followers of Christ, express true ideas and 
relationships ; while the human names since 
added express false and unscriptural ideas and 
relationships. The church and its members 
should be named after Christ because they be- 
long to him ; for the same reason it is wrong 
to call them after any other person or thing. 

Paul writes, "Every one of you saith, I am 
of Paul; and I of Apollos ; and I of Cephas; 
and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul 



186 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

crucified for you? or were you baptized in the 
name of Paul?" "For while one saith, I am 
of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos ; are ye 
not carnal?" (i Cor. 1:12, 13; 3:4). "I pray 
you," said Luther, "leave my name alone, and 
do not call yourselves Lutherans, but Christians. 
Who is Luther? My doctrine is not mine. I 
was not crucified for any one. ' Paul would 
not that any should call themselves of Paul, 
nor of Peter, but of Christ. How, then, does 
it fit me, a miserable bag of dust and ashes, to 
give my name to the children of Christ! Cease 
to cling to these party names and distinctions [ 
Away with them all and let us call ourselves 
Christians, after him from whom our doctrine 
comes !" Those engaged in this restoration 
movement heed the admonitions of Paul and 
Luther and call themselves "Christians," or 
"disciples of Christ," while they call the 
churches, "churches of Christ" or "churches of 
God." They do not use these names in a sec- 
tarian, but in a Scriptural, sense. They do not 
claim to be the "only Christians," but aim to 
be "Christians only." We read in Acts 11: 
26, "The disciples were called Christians first 
at Antioch." "If any man suffer as a Chris- 
tian," says Peter, "let him not be ashamed, but 
let him glorify God in this name" (1 Pet. 4: 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 187 

16). Any name used to designate a part of 
the followers of Christ and to separate them 
from the rest, is wrong, because it expresses a 
wrong and unscriptural idea. "Would to God," 
said Wesley, "that all sectarian names were 
forgotten, and that we, as humble, loving dis- 
ciples, might sit down at the Master's feet,, 
read his holy word, imbibe his spirit, and. 
transcribe his life into our own !" John says, 
"We shall see his face and his name shall be 
in our foreheads" (Rev. 22:4). 

The Ordinances Restored. 

In addition to the restoration of the New 
Testament creed and names, it was found that. 
there can be no organic Christian union, after 
the primitive type, without a restoration of the 
ordinances as administered by the Apostles. 
Protestants all accept two ordinances, baptism 
and the Lord's Supper, but they differ greatly 
in the manner of observing them. Some have 
open and others close communion. Some ob- 
serve the Lord's Supper monthly, others quar- 
terly and still others annually. In looking for 
apostolic precepts and examples, it was found 
that the early Christians met on every first 
day of the week to break bread; and that each 
Christian was commanded by Christ to par- 



188 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

take of the Lord's Supper, after examining 
himself to see that his heart was prepared for 
this spiritual feast. . We have neither the au- 
thority to decide the frequency of the service, 
nor who shall partake of the Supper. 

The greatest hindrance to a practical work- 
ing union of the followers of Christ is the babel 
of teaching and practice as to baptism. Some 
hold that the mere baptism of infants will save 
them, while others belittle baptism or ignore it 
altogether. Some baptize infants, others only 
adults. Some sprinkle, some pour, and others 
immerse for baptism. Some sprinkle, pour or 
immerse, just as the candidate wishes it. Does 
the New Testament teach this babel of con- 
fusion or has it come from human inventions 
and additions? It has already been pointed out 
that only those who had previously been born 
of the Spirit, or undergone a change of heart 
through faith and repentance, were baptized 
by the Apostles. We are told that Jesus never 
baptized any one (John 4:2), therefore he 
never baptized any infants. If we examine 
carefully the cases of household baptism re- 
corded in the Xew Testament, we will find that 
in each case infants are necessarily excluded ; 
as those baptized "heard" (Acts 10:33), "be- 
lieved" (Acts 16:34), "were comforted" (Acts 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 189 

16:40), "addicted themselves to the ministry" 
(1 Cor. 16: 16), etc. These acts all refer 
to people who had reached the age of intelli- 
gence and accountability and, therefore, cannot 
refer to infants. Infant baptism is based on 
two errors that crept into the church — the 
doctrines of infant damnation and baptismal 
regeneration. Infants are saved without bap- 
tism, for Jesus said "of such is the kingdom 
of heaven" (Matt. 19: 14), and baptism is of 
value only because of its relation to Christ 
and the faith of the sinner (Mark 16: 16). The 
greatest emphasis we can put on baptism is 
to say that Christ commanded it and made it 
a condition of salvation to those that hear the 
gospel and have the opportunity to obey it. 
To refuse to obey this or any other command- 
ment of Christ, reveals a rebellious heart that 
cannot be saved. 

Of the action of baptism we speak in a pre- 
vious chapter, therefore we need not treat of 
it here only to say that all churches agree that 
the immersion of a penitent believer in water is 
Scriptural baptism, and this is the only practice 
on which all can unite. Thousands of those that 
are contented to be Christians only have given 
up sprinkling and been immersed after study- 
ing the Bible on the subject. 



190 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

The Bible Restored. 

Christian union on the primitive gospel ne- 
cessitates the restoration of the Bible to its 
proper place and authority. Sectarianism has 
largely displaced it with creeds and other hu- 
man standards. Recently I read the following 
in an introduction to a catechism : "This cate- 
chism has well been called a Bible for the 
laity." When we remember how contradictory, 
and, therefore, erroneous, these human deduc- 
tions as to Bible teaching are, we can see the 
need of putting them aside and restoring the 
Bible as the Christian's all-sufficient and only 
sufficient guide. 

The Bible has also been thrust aside and 
kept from the people by false theories of con- 
version and the consequent erroneous prac- 
tices in evangelistic work. People have been 
taught that they are totally depraved and can 
do nothing towards their conversion, that faith 
is a direct gift of God, that the Holy Spirit 
converts sinners by immediate miraculous 
power, that the evidence of pardon is in dreams, 
visions or feelings, and that sinners have to wait 
until God by entreaties is reconciled to save 
them. All these theories are erroneous and 
logically set aside the entire gospel plan of sal- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 191 

*vation. The Holy Spirit, through the Apostles, 
used the truths of the Word or gospel to con- 
vict sinners, and taught penitents, out of the 
New Testament, on what conditions they could 
inherit the salvation Christ purchased on the 
cross. The sinners that wanted to be saved ac- 
cepted this salvation by complying with Christ's 
conditions of pardon, and went on their way re- 
joicing, because they had the infallible Word of 
God for it that they were saved. In other 
words, the Apostles preached the gospel, and 
penitent sinners were* immediately saved by 
believing it (Mark 16: 16), repenting of their 
sins (Acts 2:38) and openly committing them- 
selves to Christ in baptism (Acts 22: 16). 

Finally, the Bible has become a meaningless 
riddle and uninteresting to most people be- 
cause it is not rightly divided. It is assumed 
that all parts of the Bible are addressed to 
everybody. This is far from the truth. While 
we must recognize the unity and interdepend- 
ence of the entire Bible and that each part 
teaches great spiritual truths for all, we must 
also remember that its different parts contain 
specific precepts addressed to different classes 
of people and only applicable to them. Thus 
the Mosaic law was for the Jews only, and was 
superseded by the gospel (Gal. 3:24, 25). 



192 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

Turning to the New Testament, we find that the 
four Gospels were written to make believers 
(John 20:31), the Acts of the Apostles, "Book 
of Cdnversions," to tell and show people how to 
be saved or become Christians (see chapters 2, 
8, 16, etc.), while the rest of the New Testa- 
ment is addressed to Christians or church- 
members as their rule of faith and practice. 
The churches in this Restoration movement aim 
to restore the Bible to its primitive place in 
producing penitents, guiding them unto salva- 
tion and in giving all instructions to the churches 
needed for their edification and guidance. 

Restoration of the New Testament Church 
Government. 

We have learned that all sectarian divisions 
have resulted from exalting human leaders and 
their opinions. Ambitious ecclesiastics have 
exalted themselves with the help of misguided 
people ; and, usurping authority, have lorded 
it over God's heritage. How wide the differ- 
ence between the simplicity of the primitive 
gospel and the pompous ecclesiastical organi- 
zations and titles of modern times! It is self- 
evident that Christian union cannot be restored 
until this ecclesiastical machinery be put aside 
and the administration of Christ's kingdom be 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 19a 

again entrusted to the local churches and their 
officers as in New Testament times. 

It will be noticed that this modern move- 
ment for Christian union does not seek to in- 
troduce new doctrines into the religious world. 
It seeks rather the restoration of the old Jeru- 
salem gospel with its doctrines, ordinances and 
fruits. Its promoters thoroughly believe in all 
the truths accepted by evangelical bodies and 
simply strive to remove the sectarian growths 
that have fastened themselves to the old ship 
Zion during its course through the centuries. 
Among its favorite mottoes are these: 

No Book but the Bible. 

No Creed but the Christ. 

No Plea but the Gospel. 

No Name but the Divine. 

In Christ — Unity. 

In Opinions — Liberty. 

In all Things — Charity. 

Is One Church as Good as Another? 

The mere hint that there might be something 
in the doctrines of different churches that is 
erroneous and needs to be dropped or modified, 
is usually met with a frown of disfavor, by the 
supersensitive sectarian world. The sectarian 
sore is grown over with the agreement to dis- 



194 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

agree, and woe unto the doctor that insists on 
probing the wound to effect a cure. The effort 
at probing is usually met with the declaration, 
"One church is just as good as another, they 
are all aiming for the same place." Let us try 
to discover what truth or error is wrapped 
up in this statement, and what are the religious 
conditions that inspire such declarations. In 
the first place, it shows a disposition to apolo- 
gize for sectarian doctrines rather than to de- 
fend them. This is a hopeful sign. All the 
large denominations in America originated in 
European countries under the bitter religious 
controversies and cruel political strife that 
followed the Dark Ages. It was these stormy 
and abnormal conditions that gave birth to 
these sects and largely moulded their peculiar 
doctrines. One extreme begot another, and 
while each of these denominations emphasized 
some neglected religious truth, it emphasized 
it so strongly as to often twist it into an un- 
truth or out of proper relationship to other 
truths. The people in free America are not 
interested in the polemical controversies that 
resulted from religious and political conditions 
in the old countries. Thus it has come to 
pass that scarcely any denomination seriously 
and persistently urges the ideas that gave it 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 195 

birth, and their creeds have to be revised con- 
tinually to hold their preachers and church- 
members! The result is that the great mass of 
the members of the sectarian churches neither 
know nor care what the creeds of their 
churches teach. I say that this is a hopeful 
sign, but there is also a great danger involved 
in it. Learning that the doctrines of their own 
and other denominations are not of saving 
or vital importance, people are likely to jump 
to the conclusion that no religious doctrines 
are of vital importance, and so lose their in- 
terest in Christianity. No one can deny that 
thousands have reached this condition, and are 
either members of no church or merely nom- 
inal, indifferent members. Since all sectarian 
doctrines are of human origin and of no vital, 
saving importance, we can endorse the state- 
ment that, from a sectarian standpoint, one 
church is just as good as another. 

We will also grant, for the sake of the argu- 
ment, that from the standpoint of piety, talent, 
learning and consecration, one church, on an 
average, is just as good as another. But does 
this go to the bottom of the subject? The 
doctor who, through ignorance of medical sci- 
ence, gives your child medicine that cripples 
it for life or kills it, may be just as good 



196 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

morally and intellectually as other doctors 
who know their business. His blunder of ig- 
norance may not destroy his hope of heaven; 
but is that a reason why you would just as 
soon have him treat your child as another doc- 
tor? So sectaries who teach erroneous doc- 
trines may be just as honest, consecrated and 
learned as those who teach the gospel truth; 
but does it make no difference to the cause of 
Christ and the salvation of souls, whether they 
teach sectarian vagaries that divide and deso- 
late the church, or exalt the Christ and his 
Word so as to unite all his followers in the 
conquest of the world? But, you ask, how 
can good and learned people differ so in their 
behefs? We may not understand how it is, 
but we know it is and ever has been so. Our 
minds are so constituted that we must see all 
truths alike, logically, mathematically and in 
every other way, if we see them at all. The 
trouble is that our vision is so warped through 
prejudice and limited ideas and information 
that we fail to see the simplest truths, and 
find in the Bible and elsewhere what we bring 
with us through heredity and environment. 
The Bible recognizes this truth. Jesus prayed, 
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do" (Luke 23:34). Paul says, "I obtained 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 197 

mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" 
(i Tim. 1:13), and again, "The times of this 
ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth 
all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). 
It may seem paradoxical, but it is neverthe- 
less true, that the greatest hindrance to the 
spread of the truth of God has come from 
pious, consecrated and God-fearing souls who 
were misled by their hereditary prejudices. 
The majority of those converted under the 
preaching of the Apostles, as recorded in the 
New Testament, were devout saints who needed 
to be delivered from their hereditary Jewish prej- 
udices and enlisted in the re-alignment of re- 
ligious forces for the conquest of the world 
for Christ and his kingdom. The Pentecos- 
tians were "devout men," the eunuch was a de- 
vout, worshiper, Saul of Tarsus was a con- 
scientious man, Cornelius was devout and a 
philanthropist. A large per cent, of the Jews 
were honest and devout people, but were fight- 
ing against Christ because they were blinded 
by hereditary religious ideas. Peter, even af- 
ter Pentecost, was subject to these influences, 
for it took ten years, with special miraculous 
manifestations, before he could see that Gen- 
tiles were creatures to whom the gospel was 
to be preached as well as to the Jews. While 



198 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

sectarian divisions are largely due to selfish 
and wicked men, most of them are due to devout 
Christians who are misled by inherited preju- 
dices or simply drift with the tide. 

If these things are true, we should tremble 
lest we are upholding error and opposing the 
truth unintentionally through hereditary bias. 
We should make a prayerful and diligent 
search for the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. 
Although we have discovered that none of the 
sectarian doctrines are of vital importance, let 
us remember that it is different with "the faith 
[system of teaching] which was once for all 
delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3) by the 
Apostles and for which we are duty bound to 
■ "earnestly contend." Since so many devout 
and learned preachers are teaching so many 
contradictory doctrines, which cannot all be 
true, let us not accept their statements unchal- 
lenged, but let us test them (1 John 4:1-6) 
by searching the Scriptures daily to see if 
these things are so (Acts 17:11). After that 
we are assured that we have found the truth 
ourselves, let us "be gentle unto all men, apt 
to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those 
that oppose themselves: if God peradventure 
will give them repentance to the acknowledg- 
ing of the truth ; and that they may recover 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 199 

themselves out of the snare of the devil, who 
are taken captive by him at his will" (2 Tim. 
2:24-26). In view of the fact that at least 
the great majority of the members of denomi- 
national churches must be in error, it should 
be a crowning glory to change one's religious 
affiliations through an investigation of the 
truth. The hope of the cause of Christ lies 
with those who, hearing the . voice of God's 
truth in their conscience, are ready to obey 
it, even if it results in breaking the dearest 
human ties and leads, to ostracism and perse- 
cution. Almost all the promoters of this union 
movement have themselves found their way 
out of sectarianism after heart-rending efforts 
to rid themselves from their hereditary preju- 
dices and errors. They are simply entreating 
others to do what they themselves have done, 
for the sake of Christ's cause , and help to 
establish local churches of Christ after the 
Apostolic model. That they have fundamental- 
ly reoccupied the primitive ground is admitted 
by all who have fairly investigated the subject. 
If they are yet in error on any points, they are 
in a position and ready to correct these as fast 
as they discover them through a further study 
of God's Word. 



200 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

The Church Triumphant. 

Christ declares that the evangelization of the 
world is dependent upon Christian union. 
Therefore, the ultimate triumph of his church 
necessitates the triumph of Christian union. 
We praise God for every movement that looks 
toward a closer union of Christians; but we 
are sure that nothing short of the removal of 
every vestige of denominationalism and the 
complete restoration of the one body or church 
of New Testament times will satisfy the demands 
of God's Word. A number of forces such as the 
Sunday-school, C. E., Y. M. C. A., Evangelical 
Alliance and Church Federation are destroying 
the sectarian spirit and the field is getting ripe 
unto the harvest for the restoration of the 
unity of the early church with its converting 
power. The success of this movement for Chris- 
tian union on the primitive gospel has been 
phenomenal. In eighty years its adherents have 
increased from ten thousand to about one and a 
third millions. The per cent, of gain in member- 
ship, from 1890 to 1905, in the six American 
religious bodies that number a million each 
was as follows : Christians or disciples of Christ, 
94 per cent. ; Roman Catholics, 73 per cent. ; 
Lutherans, 51 per cent. ; Methodists, 40 per cent. ; 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 20L 

Baptists, 38 per cent., and Presbyterians, 35 
per cent. Barring out the Catholics and Lu- 
therans, who get most of their gain by immi- 
gration, the Christians or churches of Christ 
show more than double the gain of the other 
three bodies. We glory in this growth only 
as the glory of Christ is involved in it. It is 
an earnest of what Christian union will do 
even through very imperfect instruments. 
What will the harvest be, when the prayer of 
Jesus is answered and all his followers are 
united in one "glorious church, holy and with- 
out blemish, not having spot or wrinkle or 
any such thing" (Eph. 5:27), going forth to 
the evangelization of the world "fair as the 
moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with 
banners," "looking forth as the morning" (S. of 
Sol. 6: 10) ! May the prayer of Jesus for the 
union of his followers be our prayer, and may 
we do all in our power to bring a speedy an- 
swer ! Amen. 

The following is a splendid statement of the 
aim of the Restoration movement. I do not 
know its author: 

OUR AIM. 

1. The restoration of primitive Christianity and 
consequent union of all the followers of Christ in one 
body. 



202 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

2. To build a church of Christ, without a denom- 
inational name, creed or other barrier to Christian 
unity, whose terms of fellowship shall be as broad as 
the conditions of salvation and identical with them. 

3. To lead sinners to Christ in the clear light of 
the New Testament teaching and example. 

I have summarized the situation as I see it 
as follows : 

ARE THESE THINGS TRUE? 

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES AND SEE. ACTS V] '. II. 

i. Christ wants all of his followers to be united in 
one church as they were the first three centuries (John 
17 : 20, 21 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 10-13 ! Eph. 4 : 1-6 ; Rom. 15 : 5-7). 

2. Sects and divisions among Christians are waste- 
ful, carnal and sinful and result from exalting human 
leaders and their opinions above Christ and his opin- 
ions revealed through his Apostles (1 Cor. 3: 1-4; Rom 
16: 17, 18; Gal. 5: 20). 

3. As soon as we drop human names, creeds and 
customs and build churches after the divine model, by 
teaching and practising as the Apostles did, the unity 
of the primitive church will be restored (Heb. 8:5; 
1 Cor. 11 : 16; Jude 3). 

4. Churches on an average are about the same in 
piety and consecration, but so long as they teach con- 
tradictory doctrines they cannot all be right, but may 
be wrong. Therefore you should examine for yourself 
and be sure you are guided by God's Word rather than 
by inherited traditions whicli perpetuate sects (Mark 
7:6-13). 

The following guide to salvation, which I 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 203 

take from one of my circulars used in gospel 
work, has the merit of being- taken entirely from 
the Word of God, except the word "warn- 
ing" and the few words in parentheses. If it 
is in harmony with the context, and we sincerely 
believe it is, then it is an infallible guide, and 
those who follow it cannot be mistaken. 

"These men are the servants of the most high God 
which show unto us 

The Way of Salvation" 

(Acts 16: 17). 

"What Must I Do to be Saved?" 

(Acts 16: 30; 2: 37; 9:6). 

"Believe (unbeliever) on the Lord Jesus -Christ 
and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). (See also 
Acts 8:12, 37; Mark 16:16; Rom. 10:9-11, 17; John 
3: 18; 20: 31; 1 John 5: 1.) 

Warning. — "He that believeth not shall be damned" 
(Mark 16:16). 

"Repent (believers) and be baptized for the re- 
mission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the 
Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). (See also Acts 8:22; 26: 
20; Luke 24:47; 2 Cor. 7:9, 10.) 

Warning. — "Except ye repent, ye shall all perish" 
(Luke 13: 5). 

"Confess (penitent believer) with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9, 10). 
(See also Matt. 10:32; 16:16; 26:63; 1 Tim. 6:13; 
1 John 4: 15.) 

15 



204 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

Warning. — "Whosoever shall deny me, him will I 
also deny" (Matt. 10:33). 

"Be baptized (confessor) and wash away thy sins" 
(Acts 22: 16). (See also Acts 2:38; Mark 16: 16; Gal. 
3: 26, 27; 1 Pet. 3: 21.) 

Warning. — "Rejected the counsel of God, being 
not baptized" (Luke 7:30). 

"Walk in newness of life" (those buried with Christ 
in baptism) (Rom. 6:4). 

Warning. — "Walk not after the flesh," "For to be 
carnally minded is death" (Rom. 8:1, 6). 

"Then they that gladly received his word were 
baptized; and the same day there were added unto them 
(joined church) about three thousand souls. And they 

Continued Steadfastly 

in the apostles' doctrine (no human creed) and fellow- 
ship (weekly collections, 1 Cor. 16: 1, 2), and in break- 
ing of bread (weekly communion. Acts 20:7), and in 
prayers" (attending prayer-meetings, Acts 2:41, 42). 
"The disciples were 

Called Christians" (Acts 11:26). 

"For while one saith, I am of Paul ; and another, I 
am of Apollos ; are ye not carnal?" (1 Cor. 3:4). "If 
ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are 
ye ... if a man suffer as a Christian, let him glorify 
God in this name" (1 Pet. 4:14-16, R. V.). 

"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, 
and that there be 

No Divisions 
among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in 
the same mind and in the same judgment. Now this I 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 205 

say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I 
of Apollos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ : is Christ 
divided (i Cor. 12: 12) ? Was Paul crucified for you? 
or were ye baptized in (into) the name of Paul?" (1 
Cor. 1 : 10-13). 
"Therefore, 

Go on unto Perfection" (Heb. 6:1). 

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through 
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Accord- 
ing as his divine power hath given unto us all things 
(in Bible) that pertain unto life and godliness, through 
the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and 
virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and 
precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers 
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that 
is in the world through lust. And beside this giving 
all diligence, 

Add to Your Faith 

virtue (courage) ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to 
knowledge, temperance (self-control) ; and to temper- 
ance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to god- 
liness, brotherly kindness (love of brethren) ; and to 
brotherly kindness, charity (love of everybody). For 
if these things be in you, and abound, they make you 
that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the 
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that 
lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off,, 
and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old 
sins. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence 
to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do 
these things, ye shall never fail : For so an entrance 
shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the ever- 



206 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" 
(2 Pet. 2:2-11). 

"Good Works." 

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath 
appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodli- 
ness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteous 
and godly in this present world ; looking for that 
blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great 
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself 
for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works" (Tit. 2:11-14). 

"Works of the Flesh 
are manifest, which are these : Adultery, fornication, 
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions (parties), 
heresies (sects — R. V.), envying, murders, drunken- 
n ess, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you 
before, as I have told you in the past, that they which 
do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 
But 

The Fruit of the Spirit 

is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no 
law" (Gal. 5 : 19-22). 

"Finally, 
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatso- 
ever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, 
and if there be any praise, think on these things" i Phil. 
4:8). 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 207 

"Now 

unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above 
all that we ask or think, according to the power that 
worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus 
Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" 
(Eph. 3:20, 21). 



CHAPTER IV. 

Our Neglected Fields. 

Note. — This chapter is an address that was de- 
livered at the Centennial Convention of the movement 
for the restoration of primitive Christianity, held at 
Pittsburg, Pa., during October, 1909. It is here given 
because it deals with the same general subject as the 
rest of the book and shows why and how the reunion 
of the followers of Christ on the primitive gospel is 
the greatest issue before the Christian world to-day. 

Ask the brotherhood what "Our Neglected 
Fields" are, and the answer will come in a 
multitude of voices speaking- from diverse view- 
points according to each speaker's knowledge, 
experience and field of operation. This is natural 
and proper. If your wife is not the best woman 
in the world, you are not much of a husband. 
If your country is not the best country on earth, 
you are not much of a patriot. Love for every- 
body and everything in general is a good thing 
in its way, but the specialized affections are of 
still greater importance in the world's progress 
heavenward. But while this babel of appeals in 
behalf of different places, classes and kinds of 
work is natural and proper, it does not solve 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 209 

the problem as to what are really our neglected 
fields and as to the relative amount of work 
and money we should give to the various calls. 

Standing on the banks of the Mississippi, it 
is impossible to determine the origin of the 
various color elements in the water ; but if we 
go to the source, it is easy to discover that the 
red mud comes from the Arkansas, the black 
mud from the Missouri and the coal dust from 
the Ohio. So if we wish to discover the prin- 
ciples that will guide us in selecting fields of 
operation, we must go back to the fountain-head 
of the New Testament. If we are in the streets 
of a strange city, all is confusion as to the lay 
of the land; but if we climb to the hilltop in the 
rear of the city, we can readily get our bearings. 
So we must climb to the hilltop with Christ and 
the Apostles and from there get our bearings 
in our missionary operations. Let us then turn 
to the New Testament and see if we can dis^ 
cover where we should go first and the relative 
importance of the individual and society, the 
earthly and the heavenly, the temporal and eter- 
nal, the material and spiritual, and their rela- 
tionship to each other. 

In looking for the scope of gospel work, 
we discover that the salvation of the individual 
and his attainment unto eternal life is the su- 



210 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

preme aim in view. From the multitude of 
Scriptures that teach this we select the follow- 
ing: ''For God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
on him should not perish, but have eternal life" 
(John 3:16). "Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 
16: 15, 16). "Who will render to every man ac- 
cording to his works : to them that by patience 
in well-doing seek for glory and honor and 
incorruption, eternal life" (Rom. 2\y). The 
Scriptures are just as clear in placing the spirit- 
ual, eternal and heavenly infinitely above the 
material, temporal and earthly : "We look not 
at the things which are seen, but at the things 
which are not seen : for the things which are 
seen are temporal ; but the things which are not 
seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4: 18). "Set your 
mind on the things which are above, not on the 
things which are upon the earth" (Col. 3:2). 
"Took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, 
knowing that ye have for yourselves a better 
possession and an abiding one" (Heb. 10:34). 
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the 
earth . . . but lay up for yourselves treas- 
ures in heaven ... for where your treas- 
ure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 211 

6: 19-21). "For our citizenship is in heaven; 
whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord 
Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body 
of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to 
the body of his glory'' (Phil. 3:20, 21). At 
best a very small per cent, of Christians can ever 
hope to attain unto wealth and worldly success ; 
and to present these things as an incentive to 
godliness is but mockery, for "if we have only 
hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men 
most pitiable" (1 Cor. 15:19). We are con- 
stantly tempted to be deceived by the delusion 
that wealth, health and worldly success neces- 
sarily bring happiness, while the opposite is as 
often true, as these things are not an end in 
themselves. 

While the Scriptures thus clearly teach that 
the supreme effort of Christianity is to prepare 
people for a glorious hereafter, good works in 
this life are demanded and are of vital import- 
ance. It is the nature of godliness to seek the 
well-being of others, in this life and the life to 
come, and no soul can remain saved without 
doing all in its power to minister unto others. 
"Ye tithe mint and anise and cummin and have 
left undone the weightier matters of the law, 
justice and mercy and faith : but these ye ought 
to have done, and not to have left the other 



212 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

undone" (Matt. 23:23). "Created in Christ 
Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared 
that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2: 10). The 
promise of eternal life is to them who continue 
patiently in well-doing (Rom. 2:7). "Every 
branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it 
away" (John 15:2). In all his works and words 
God seeks to reveal his love to men with the 
purpose of wooing them back to himself, and 
good works of love have an important place 
in winning souls to Christ. Thus Jesus did 
many works of mercy through which he made 
manifest his and the Father's love for sinners. 
"Even so let your light shine before men thit 
they may see your good works, and glorify your 
Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5: 16). "Hav- 
ing your behavior seemly among the Gentiles, 
that wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, 
they may by your good works, which they behold, 
glorify God" (1 Pet. 2: 12). "That even if any 
obey not the word, they may without the word 
be gained by the behavior of their wives" (1 
Pet. 3:1). Emerson says, "What you are speaks 
so loud, I cannot hear what you say." This is. 
alas ! too true of our Christianity. Unless our 
love for people is incarnated in the good works 
of our lives, sinners will lose faith in us and in 
our religion. This does not mean that the 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 213 

church is to forsake prayer and the Word of 
God to serve tables, or forsake its spiritual min- 
istries and mainly turn its energies to minister- 
ing to the physical, social and intellectual man. 
Chiefly, the church, through its spiritual min- 
istries, is to inspire its members and others to 
good works of love in their daily walk and 
conversation. As the anchor of the buoy or the 
ballast of the ship holds it upright, so the good 
works of Christians hold the spiritual salvation 
aloft to be seen of men, and commend it to a 
dying world. 

Having considered the scope of gospel work 
as revealed in the New Testament, let us next 
inquire where we shall go first. As we can- 
not go everywhere at once, where shall we be- 
gin, and where shall we go next? Is this left 
to chance, or is an order of procedure revealed 
in the New Testament? We believe that there 
is, and that it is of the greatest importance that 
this order should be followed. Christ gave the 
order of march in Acts i : 8, "Ye shall be my 
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea 
and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the 
earth." If we have any doubt as to the inter- 
pretation, the Apostles interpret it for us in 
their work under the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit. Other things being equal, they went 



214 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

to the nearest territory first. Again, we 
notice that the Apostles were especially led to 
the cities, the great centers of population. This 
enabled them to reach most people in a given 
time. Beginning at Jerusalem, their missionary 
journeys were determined by the location of the 
leading cities. Furthermore, we learn from the 
teaching and practice of Christ' and the Apostles, 
that they went to the ripest fields first. Christ 
came to the Jews, the best prepared people on 
earth, to gather a nucleus for his coming king- 
dom and to scatter preparatory light for the 
gospel message. The Apostles commenced their 
gospel work at Jerusalem on Pentecost because 
the most devout and enlightened saints on earth 
were gathered there. For this reason the order 
was first the Jews and then the Gentiles (Acts 
13:46, 47). Paul passed through Amphipolis 
and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica be- 
cause a synagogue of the Jews was there (Acts 
17: 1). The Spirit forbade him to go to Asia 
and Bithynia and led him by Mysia into Mace- 
donia because there were hearts there ready to 
receive the message (Acts 16:6-10). Christ 
commanded Paul to depart from Jerusalem be- 
cause they would not receive his testimony there 
(Acts 22: 17-21). Open doors were considered 
as guides by Paul in his missionary operations 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 215 

(i Cor. 16:8; 2 Cor. 2:12, 13; Acts 14:27; 
Col. 4:3). 

Summing up, we find that the Apostles, in 
their effort to preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture, were guided by nearness of territory, den- 
sity of population and ripeness of field. That is, 
all things considered, they went along the line 
of least resistance. This is the way of mercy 
and common sense as well as of Scripture, as 
it is the quickest way to reach every creature. 
It enlarges the army of conquest as fast as 
possible and always meets the enemy at the 
point of least resistance. 

It will help us to understand the matter if 
we keep in mind that it was not only the pur- 
pose of Christ to sav* individuals here and there, 
but also to organize a salvation society or church 
through which to carry the gospel to the ends 
of the earth, provide a home for the new-born 
spiritual babes and to extend his reign on earth 
as far and as fast as possible. 

The matter will become still plainer if we 
consider another principle taught and practised 
by Christ and the Apostles; viz., the necessity 
an absolute union of the forces of God under 
Christ for the accomplishment of his work. 
Christ said, "Every kingdom divided against 
itself is brought to desolation : and every city or 



216 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

house divided against itself shall not stand," 
and he prayed for a perfect union among his fol- 
lowers in order that the world might believe in 
him (Matt. 12:25; John 17:20, 21). Paul 
says, "Whereas there is among you jealousy 
and strife, are ye not carnal? For when one 
saith, I am of Paul ; and another, I am of Apol- 
los; are ye not carnal?" ( 1 Cor. 3:3, 4). Again 
he says, "If ye bite and devour one another, take 
heed that ye be not consumed one of another" 
(Gal. 5: 15). Divisions inevitably lead to weak- 
ness, waste and defeat. A small army united in 
the authority of a wise commander can defeat 
the largest army on earth if it be divided through 
every officer doing as he pleases or as he thinks 
best. Therefore Christ demanded absolute un- 
ion in his authority, and the Apostles first of all 
worked for a union of Jews and Gentiles in one 
body or working force. If the purpose had only 
been to save individuals, the Jews might have 
been saved as Jews, but the object was to enlist 
the Jews with the Gentiles in God's new army 
of conquest. This new union under Christ, or 
re-alignment of religious forces, was so import- 
ant that the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles 
was conditioned on their entering it, and, if 
necessary, all other unions and alliances had to 
be broken to maintain this. All race and class 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 217 

distinctions must succumb. "There can be 
neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond 
nor free, there can be no male nor. female ; for ye 
are all one man in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). 
Not even family ties were permitted to interfere 
with this union in the authority of Christ. "He 
that loveth father or mother more than me, is 
not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or 
daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. 
For I came to set a man at variance with his 
father, and the daughter against her mother, 
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in- 
law : and a man's foes shall be they of his own 
household" (Matt. 10:35-37). The subjection 
of wives to their husbands and of children to 
their parents is limited "in the Lord" (Col. 3: 
18, 20). 

Summing up the New Testament principles 
that are to guide us in our gospel work, we may 
say that we are to go as a united force along 
the line of least resistance, making the eternal 
salvation of the individual our supreme aim. 

The Restoration movement became neces- 
sary because one of the fundamental principles 
of the gospel had been violated; viz.: that of 
Christian union. The success of this movement 
for Christian union on the primitive gospel has 
been phenomenal. In eighty years its adherents 



218 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

have increased from ten thousand to one and a 
third millions. But what are these among so 
many? The work has but fairly begun, and the 
field is just beginning to ripen for the larger 
harvest. Sectarianism is still present in all of 
its hideousness, but the people are beginning to 
see the desolation and sinfulness of divisions 
and are groping in the dark in various efforts at 
solution. However, a careful investigation will 
reveal the fact that the great drift towards de- 
nominational union is more due to a dying faith 
in sectarian doctrines than to a growing faith in 
the doctrines ''once for all delivered to the 
saints." About a year ago it was declared in a 
large meeting of clergymen that "Protestantism 
is decaying and will be displaced by some sort of 
a new Catholicism." The statement was vigor- 
ously applauded. This simply means that secta- 
rian Protestantism is decaying. It should be 
remembered that every large religious body in 
America, except that represented here to-day, 
originated in Europe under the shadow of 
Roman Catholicism and under political, social 
and religious conditions entirely different from 
those that now prevail in America. These secta- 
rian systems brought to America have been 
thawed out by our free American religious at- 
mosphere so that there is not a large sectarian 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 219 

body that would dare to promulgate seriously 
and persistently the basic principles that gave 
birth to it in Europe. The consequence is that 
sects are hastening to revise their creeds so as 
to get rid of their out-of-date features as grace- 
fully as possible. One of the leading arguments 
for union with other denominations used at the 
recent Canadian General Assembly was that "it 
would give the church an opportunity to revise 
its creeds, and to remove the barnacles and cob- 
webs that had gathered around them." The 
leading speaker declared that "not a single min- 
ister present would dare to enforce his own in- 
terpretation of the Confession of Faith." The 
ministers hesitate to enforce these hereditary 
traditions, and the members neither know nor 
care what the creeds teach, and, therefore, we 
hear on every hand, "One church is just as good 
as another." 

We thank God for this relaxing of sectarian- 
ism and for the trend toward Christian union. 
But the movement involves a grave danger. 
Having lost faith in their distinctive sectarian 
doctrines, which they considered synonymous 
with New Testament teaching, many sectarian 
people are rapidly drifting into indifference, 
worldliness and unbelief. Forsaking human 
leaders and their doctrines, they are in danger 



220 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

of also for3aking the Apostles as religious lead- 
ers and their doctrines once for all delivered to 
the saints. Sectarianism is bad, but sectarian 
life and strife is better than a lifeless, conviction- 
less, graveyard, sentimental union that is the 
result of a dying faith. In a union revival in 
an Eastern city practically all the Protestant 
churches worked together for a month, and we 
could not count five definite committals to Christ. 
Any small sectarian church alone could have ac- 
complished greater definite results. After re- 
ducing their doctrines so as to- avoid all that 
would give offense to any, they become so thin 
that there is but little to contend for. 

The indifference to the doctrines of the 
creeds and the New Testament which is hasten- 
ing the disintegration of sectarianism, is partly 
due to infidelity in the churches. Discerning 
critics cannot fail to see that much of the drift 
toward denominational union is due to the lead- 
ership of preachers who, through rationalism, 
have lost faith in the inspiration of the Bible 
and consequently in evangelical Christianity. As 
I was a student for three years at a Unitarian 
theological school and have gone through the 
process myself, I am able to speak on this sub- 
ject as perhaps few of our brethren can. Mis- 
guided by rationalism, I thought it my con- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 221 

scientious duty to accept, step by step, the dic- 
tates of destructive criticism until the Bible was 
only inspired to me in religion as Kant in philos- 
ophy, Milton in poetry and Beethoven in music. 
But when I came to the end of the business I 
discovered that my conscience, that had urged 
me along, was gone also. For I was gravely 
taught that conscience is simply a creation of 
experience and education and that it is right to 
lie or do anything else so long as you do it out 
of love. Doubtless you have all heard of the 
farmer and his wife at the World's Fair, who 
went to see the "Exit." There was nothing in 
it and of course they had to pay to get in again. 
This was my bitter experience with rationalism. 
I thought I was following a great light, but I 
discovered there was nothing in it, that I was 
following an ignis fatuus. Rationalism has in- 
deed proven the "Exit" to multitudes, from the 
peace, joy and moral security that accompany 
faith in evangelical Christianity into the desert 
of doubt, darkness and despair. To those 
preachers w r ho, through rationalism, have lost 
faith in the inspiration of the Bible, doctrines 
are no longer a hindrance to union, for they 
have lost faith in all evangelical doctrines and 
therefore selfishness and utility draw them to- 
ward union. 



222 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

If this is the religious condition to-day, you 
can see that we are in danger of religious an- 
archy and spiritual death. We are told that the 
splendid civilizations of Greece and Rome were 
made possible through the moral integrity and 
manhood inspired by their heathen religious sys- 
tems. When unbelief in these systems orig- 
inated among the philosophers and through them 
permeated the mass of the people, morality and 
sincerity were displaced by policy, distrust and 
deception, which brought utter ruin to the social 
and civil fabric. How much greater must the 
calamity be if the faith, integrity and morality 
underlying our splendid Christian civilization 
should be destroyed by the antichristian doc- 
trines already taught m the classroom at some 
of the leading schools. The only hope lies in a 
return to "the faith once for all delivered to the 
saints.". I believe we have been raised up for 
this hour. Our past work and opportunities are 
but a drop in the bucket compared with our 
present opportunities for work. As never be- 
fore, it behooves us to raise the banner of Xew 
Testament Christianity as a standard to rally and 
reorganize the divided, confused and retreating 
hosts of Christ. It is not a question of staying 
at Jerusalem until each individual is converted, 
but the question is whether we will ever go to 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 223 

the Jerusalem of teeming millions in our land 
who have never even heard the plea for Chris- 
tian union on the primitive gospel. Just as the 
Apostles went to saints (pious Jews) and sinners 
and demanded upon pain of their eternal con- 
demnation that they unite under King Jesus, so 
we must go to the saints of the sects and sinners 
of the world and insist that they unite under the 
non-sectarian banner of Christ, in order that the 
whole world may believe in him as God's Son. 
As in the days of the Apostles, so now we need 
a re-alignment of religious forces in order to 
conquer the world for Christ. 

Having learned the New Testament prin- 
ciples that should guide us in our missionary 
operations, and through these discovered our 
chief sphere of work in view of the present sit- 
uation, let us turn to special missionary problems 
that constantly suggest themselves to us and 
consider our duty towards them and their rela- 
tionship to the great mission that rests upon us 
as a distinctive people. I refer to the Indians, 
Mormons. Jews, immigrants, the lower and slum 
districts of our cities, the mountaineers of the 
Appalachian system, the millions of un evangel- 
ized negroes in the South, etc. 

Concerning these problems I wish to call 
your attention to the following considerations : 



224 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

First, these problems are largely educational, 
legal, social and philanthropic, ancl as such 
should be solved by the united effort of all the 
good citizens of the land. Keeping in mind the 
New Testament principles that are to guide us, 
we can readily see that Christians should do 
many things that the church was not ordained to 
do. The church, as a church, should not go into 
politics and business. On the other hand, the 
church, through its spiritual ministries, should 
inspire its members to enter business, politics, 
philanthropic associations, etc., in order, as far 
as possible, to incarnate Christian principles in 
their life in the world. We may differ as to the 
finer distinctions, but none of us would advocate 
a union of church and state or of church and 
business. As this is a nation in which Christians 
can control the laws, they can do much through 
good citizenship to solve these questions and 
bring these classes within the reach of- the 
spiritual gospel. One of the great duties of the 
church in behalf of these people is, through 
their spiritual ministries, to constrain their mem- 
bers to make and enforce proper laws for their 
education, protection and improvement. Chris- 
tianity is the religion of a book, and the first 
thing needful to bring these classes to an intelli- 
gent Christian faith is at least a common-school 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 225 

English education. Those of us who have lived 
in cities that are largely foreign know that 
the public schools are doing more to bring 
these classes within gospel reach than all other 
agencies combined. 

Second, I wish to throw out a warning 
against engendering or encouraging the class 
spirit which we find so severely condemned in 
the New Testament. In the New Testament we 
read nothing about churches for different classes. 
or about different classes as separate missionary- 
problems, but the effort is to reach all classes 
through the local churches along the line of least 
resistance. The best thing on earth for these 
various classes is that they might be brought 
into vital touch with the best Christian people 
in our local churches. Some have even gone so- 
far as to claim that we cannot reach the slum, 
element, but must leave that to the Salvation 
Army, etc. If that is true, so much the worse 
for our Christianity. A truly New Testament 
church is the incarnation of the wisdom and love 
of God for reaching any and all classes of 
people. The class spirit is the outgrowth of 
ignorance, prejudice and selfishness and is al- 
ways sinful among Christians. Our experience 
with tuberculosis and with the modern compli- 
cated industrial and political systems, is thrust- 



226 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

ing upon us anew Christ's teaching about the 
brotherhood of man or the solidarity of the race. 
On the whole, it is true that the race suffers or 
rejoices, rises or falls, together. We condemn 
the segregation of foreign races in different sec- 
tions of our large cities. But the segregation 
of the better, or at least more fortunate, classes, 
is just as bad and more disastrous to the welfare 
of the city. Social settlements and institutional 
churches are manifestations of the Christ spirit, 
but they are only proxies and excuses for the 
mass of Christians and but samples and crumbs 
in place of the square meal that a square deal 
would supply. What these institutions are doing 
in a comparatively unnatural and artificial way 
is simply a hint of what could and would be 
done if all church-members would practise the 
Christ spirit in all their daily walk and conver- 
sation. To give a few dollars to help pay a few 
mission workers to live Christ in the slum dis- 
tricts is all right, but is no adequate substitute 
for all Christians giving all their life to uplift 
and save their country and the whole world. 
The best institutional church is the one that 
through its spiritual ministries inspires its mem- 
bers to live Christ in politics, in business, in so- 
ciety, in the home and everywhere else. So far 
as possible, let us minimize and discourage the 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 227 

class spirit in every way, shape and form. It is 
marvelous what the true Christ spirit will do 
along this line. A church of Christ was recently 
organized at Romney, W. Va., with two-thirds 
of the members foreign born. With a few days' 
effort nineteen Italians recently joined the Chris- 
tian Church at Uhrichsville, O. Similar results 
have followed faithful efforts in New York City 
and at many other places. If in love and faith 
we would make a serious effort to reach these 
classes through the local churches, we would do 
ten times more to reach and help them than by 
seeking to reach them as classes. 

In the third place, we must avoid the mate- 
rializing tendency of the age in our gospel work. 
The constant tendency is to lose sight of the 
spiritual, invisible and eternal, to be blinded by 
the things of this world and to be conformed 
to them. In reading popular books on Home 
Missions we cannot but be grieved at the flings 
and thrusts at the old evangelism and the lauda- 
tions of the new evangelism. For the context 
shows that the teaching is away from the spirit- 
ual and eternal salvation of the individual, which 
the New Testament makes the chief and ultimate 
thing, to the material and temporal things of this 
earth, which the New Testament makes a means 
to a higher end. To prove that the old evan- 



228 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

gelism is defunct, attention is called to the fact 
that seven thousand sectarian congregations did 
not have a single convert in an entire year. But 
can that be said of true New Testament evan- 
gelism? How prone we are to forget that only 
a comparatively few can attain unto worldly suc- 
cess according to the standard of public opinion 
and none so as to be satisfied with the effort. 
For the more we get the more we want in 
wealth and fame and pleasure, and none of these 
things in themselves bring happiness or well-be- 
ing, which is the real thing the soul hungers for. 
Who can estimate the eternal good* B. F. Mills 
did while he pointed individuals to the Lamb of 
God and thus filled their souls with new* life, 
hope and courage to do and to dare for self and 
others because '"of the joy that was set before 
them"? But in an evil day he became spiritually 
near-sighted and spoke about saving society 
rather than the individual, and now he is reputed 
to be a hotel-keeper, ministering to the material 
comforts of his fellow-men. Oh, what a fall 
was there! But only an example of multitudes 
who have become near-sighted and unfruitful 
through a so-called new evangelism that is not 
new. While giving good works their proper and 
important place, let us never forget that to save 
the individual soul for eternity through the gos- 



TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 229 

pel is the chief work of the church, and that it 
must ever subordinate the temporal and material 
to the spiritual and eternal. 

Furthermore, it is well to remember that our 
sectarian neighbors, having largely lost faith in 
what they once considered their distinctive mis- 
sion, are naturally turning much of their energy 
to general educational, philanthropic and civiliz- 
ing work. Under the circumstances it is natural 
and proper that they should give relatively more 
of their energies to this kind of work than we, 
as we have a distinctive mission that demands 
our chief effort. 

The classes enumerated above present indeed 
great missionary problems. We should keep in 
mind the entire field and never plan for anything 
short of reaching, as soon as possible, every 
creature with the gospel. But accepting the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit, revealed in the New 
Testament, we must go to the ends of the earth 
as a body united in Christ and his truth, along 
the line of least resistance, ever keeping in mind 
the spiritual and eternal salvation of the indi- 
vidual as the ultimate aim. 

These things being true, I still believe, as wc 
have always taught, that the reunion of God's 
people on the primitive gospel is at present the 
overshadowing issue before us and that in work- 



230 TO INFIDELITY AND BACK 

ing for its accomplishment we are doing the 
utmost in our power to solve all missionary 
problems. Christ can never conquer with a 
hopelessly divided army. Sectarianism ties up 
three-fourths of the men and money and kills 
three-fourths of the spiritual power that could 
otherwise be used to solve all missionary prob- 
lems. Unite all saints in Christ and set free 
these forces, and within this generation the world 
will believe and know that Jesus is the Christ 
whom God sent into the world (John 17: 20, 21, 
23). I believe that God has providentially pre- 
pared both us and the field, and unless we per- 
form the mission set before us he will raise up 
another people through whom to bring about 
Christian union on the primitive gospel, to our 
eternal shame, but to their eternal glory. Thus 
it seems that, pre-eminently, our neglected fields 
lie among the teeming millions of America, ripe 
unto the harvest for our plea, but who, through 
our negligence, have not even heard that there is 
such a plea. 

Grapes of Eshcol have been gathered from 
every corner of our land, proving that it is a 
land flowing with milk and honey for primitive 
Christianity. Look at the wonders done in Okla- 
homa. Go to Southern California and see the 
recent record. Go to the great Northwest, both 



TO INFIDELITY AXD BACK 231 

in Canada and the United States, and see the 
ripeness of the field. If we turn to the south- 
east we gather just as large clusters of grapes in 
Florida and along the coast. See the marvels 
accomplished in Washington, our capital. Two 
churches offered to us because we are non-sec- 
tarian. Turn to Baltimore and see the marvelous 
growth. Two fields offered to us because we 
stand for Christian union. Look at the recent 
and abundant fruit in conservative Pennsylvania, 
or pass on to Xew York and see the wonders at 
East Orange and in Brooklyn among the Rus- 
sians. Wherever we turn, the field is riper than 
ever and we must haste to garner it in or the 
abundant crop will perish. The heart of the 
country is already largely ours. Let us go for- 
ward with enlarged numbers and renewed vigor, 
knowing that the God of the harvest is with us 
and we are well able to possess the land. While 
greatly increasing all our other activities, let us 
push the Home Society to the front where it be- 
longs according to every principle of Scripture, 
mercy, economy, efficiency and common sense. 
If we will renew among us the zeal and self- 
denial of the pioneers of this movement, we will 
soon gloriously triumph to His honor and praise. 



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